Major Healey's Personal Log
by trek-grrrl
Summary: Part II and IV of Endeavour Series. Major Healey's journal, with reality bites interspersed. Outlines his training at the SGC. Roger,Samantha. Read this, then Cocoa Beach for 18 AUG through 24 AUG, then continue this till he finishes training. Complete.
1. 06 AUG 2004

From this date on, the story might be from Roger's diary, or it might be narrative. 

Remember from IDoJ, Roger was a bit of a ladies' man, so the ratings for this entire storyline is T.

06 August, 2004 17:42:27

I'm officially re-assigned to the SGC.

So weird to read back on that. Re-assigned. I've been with NASA, and working with Tony, for so many years, it'll be weird starting something new at my age. But what a start! Other planets, in other star systems! And so beyond top secret, I can't tell a soul. I at least don't have to hide the SGC's existence from Tony, but anything that happens from now on is classified, even from my best friend in the world. Worlds. That's so cool.

I miss Tony. We worked together for so many years, that I sometimes expect to see him come bursting in and exclaiming about something or other, something Bellows has done, or Jeannie.

Bellows. Lt. Colonel DOCTOR Bellows to you! God, I won't miss him. It amazes me how he and Sam are the exact same rank, yet they handle themselves so differently.

Sam's a strong, confident leader, who instills a sense of loyalty in her people, like Daniel and Teal'c. And me, too, on that awesome mission we just had to P2X-899. I heard they're calling it "Healey's Volcano" now! I couldn't be more honored, even though it will only be an honor from those who know about the off-world missions here. Oh well, some day, the research I'll be doing over the next several years can be published and my fellow geologists can see this wonder.

Any way, comparing Bellows with Samantha. While she commands respect and loyalty, because she will give nothing less of herself, Bellows' style, if you can call it that, was always just belittling, aggravating, snoopy... but never mind, I don't want to think about him.

Going to write my official "Hey, it's been great, guys, I'm enjoying my retirement here in the mountains of Colorado!" letter to him and the General at Cocoa Beach.

Speaking of Generals, I still don't know what to think of O'Neill. I think he's the type you need to get to know, when you're under his command. I watch him, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c, and there's something there. Not a single man or woman here has a bad word to say about him. I find that encouraging, but frankly, he makes me nervous. Special ops, hard as nails, came up through the ranks the hard way, from enlisted personnel. You don't make General at that agewithout being something special. I'll just be cautious around him, and wait and see.

I'm not sure which SG team I'm going to be on, but I doubt it'll be SG-1. They're the only 3-some team here, so far, but I dont' think they need another specialist like myself. Daniel's linguistics and archeology experience is better to have going off-world, and Teal'c's knowledge of the Goa'uld and such.

I'm going to mention to Sam about her father's request that I tag along on Tok'ra planetary surveys. That alone could keep me happy for the rest of my life. A planetary specialist, getting to go to the actual planets, and not study them long distance? A dream come true, like my volcano was. Is.

Now, Samantha...what a girl! Woman, I mean. Lady. She is a lady too, an officer and a lady! I am finding myself in serious like with her. Not sure how she feels, but we're comfortable right now, not making any demands. It all only just started the night before we found out about SG-9 and P2X-899, so needless to say, not much there yet. Except one thing: MAN, the sex is great!

It was when she found out that I'm a scientist, a real honest-to-gawd Ph. D. scientist, that I clicked with her. I'd been pulling my usual "Hey, I'm a charming astronaut" on her and it hadn't been working, although thankfully I could make her laugh! But when she realized, "Hey, Roger has a brain!" she was so turned on about it. Go figure, I never thought of THAT angle before! But considering the chicks I used to chase in Florida, compared to her, well, there's no comparison. They were just fluff, Samantha's got substance.

She's pretty much commanded me, BE YOURSELF, ROGER HEALEY! Like I can be around you and Jeannie. I've used this silly, stupid Roger act for so long, that I only allow a select few that I can trust in. Well, new page in my life here at the SGC, new lady, I won't be using that routine any more. Probably.

More later.

It's later. Just got back from a date with Sam. She had some good news.

She talked to her father first, her father the General, then to O'Neill, about her and me seeing each other. With General Carter present, and obviously expressing his approval (man, I was surprised about THAT, but I guess Sam pled my case well), O'Neill checked the regs about fraternization between her and me.

Seems the regs leave a WEE bit of room for interpretation. Since I won't technically be under her command, and I won't be on SG-1, and I'm Army and she's USAF, it shouldn't be a problem. I think General Carter's presence there helped though. If he was agin this match-up, I'm sure the regs would've been interpreted another way.

So we won't have to skulk around in the shadows.

More later again.


	2. 07 AUG 2004

07 AUG 2004 19:19:16

Sam's as insatiable as I am.

We seem to be doing it when we both have the opportunity.We're both quite busy in our day, sneaking some time here and there. The fact that I have quarters here helps.

I certainly have PLENTY to do right now, what with my volcano data, and learning more about working on an SG team. I'll probably outrank at least two others, but being the newbie I'll probably play the "Dr. Healey" role first, until I get more experienced.

Outrunning a CALDERA VOLCANO (Man, I love saying that) raised my esteem in the SG teams' eyes, so at least some have requested me when O'Neill deems me ready.

More on that date with Sam last night. It was great how we have General Carter's blessing on this relationship. I'm not quite sure myself how it's going to go. We have fun together, and there's so much about her that I like, but with this new change in my life, I'm not sure I'm ready for love, marriage, all that stuff.

Since she went to the trouble to talk to her father about her and me, then General O'Neill, I'm wondering if she thinks it's more serious than it is. It feels almost old-fashioned, and yet we've been going at it like bunnies. She probably failed to mention that to Dad though.

Oops, Sam's here. More later.

(Reality kicks in.)

Roger called out, "Come on in, Sam!" as he minimized his journal on the computer.

She came in, looking beat, and collapsed on his bed.

"Hard day?" he asked in a flat voice. He didn't know why, but suddenly he wasn't in a very good mood. Probably from reading back over his journal. Put him in a weird frame of mind.

She seemed to have been taking refuge in his quarters whenever the whim set in. Roger turned back to his monitor for a second to turn it off, and hide the frown on his face. He really needed to talk to her. Or get an apartment in town.

She made a growling sound and rubbed her eyes with her fists.

"Terrible! I've had my eyes plastered to that screen for HOURS today, they feel like two burnt holes in my head. Got any eyedrops?"

He pointed to his tiny bathroom. "In the cupboard."

She got them, dropped some in, and came back to the living area. He was silent the whole time.

"So, what plans tonight, where did you want to go to dinner?" she asked, as she plopped back down on his bed, propping herself on his pillow.

"I don't know, I was just planning on hitting the cafeteria." he said, again without much tone in his voice.

She sat upright. "Sounds good, let's go."

"I wasn't planning on going yet, I was busy."

"Oh, I didn't realize I was interrupting." She looked at the darkened screen. "Working on The Volcano?"

"No, my journal."

"Ah, hence the dark screen. Good time to start one, starting your new life here at the SGC." She looked from the screen to Roger, the curiosity obvious on her face. But she wouldn't ask. A journal was sacred, not to be touched.

He remained silent.

She looked at him, finally sensing the mood he was in. She'd yet to see Roger Healey like this. He was always so full of life, either making love to her, being excited about the latest finding from The Volcano data, learning something in his SG team training, the two of them working out together in the gym. Always busy, always in a great mood.

She realized that he wouldn't be able to maintain that 100 per cent of the time. People have down days, moodiness, especially when they've gone through such dramatic events as he had these past weeks.

He was strong, though, resilient. They don't let weinies into the space program, after all. He would've gone through extremely intense psych testing. She knew the tests, the training he and Tony had received, because she was interested in the space program as well, newly out of college with her Ph. D., before she learned of the Stargate program.

She went up behind him and began rubbing his neck, his shoulders. She usually used that as a prelude to making love. Too predictable. Roger couldn't help but think of that old 70's song, "Escape." He almost wanted to right now.

"I was tired of my lady, I know that sounds kinda mean.  
But me and my old lady had fallen into the same old dull routine."

Yep, that fit it perfectly.

He pulled away and stood up, stretching back. She took that as an invitation and wrapped her arms around his torso while he was mid-stretch.

He put his hands on her shoulders and gently separated her from him, then reached over to his chair for his sweatshirt.

"How about we go up to the surface and get some air, Sam?"

"Sure, Roger," she said, a bit more subdued. He was in a mood tonight, wasn't he? She never failed to get him into bed, he was always as eager as she, if not more so.

He remained silent as they took the long elevator ride to the surface of the mountain, and still as they walked outside, away from the barriers on the road, to their favorite secluded spot.

"Roger, what's going on?" she finally couldn't resist asking, his continued silence was worrying her. She usually couldn't shut him up!

"Sam, you know the old saying, 'we need to talk.'"

"What about?"

"Us."

"What about us? Is something wrong?" she looked into his amber eyes, getting worried.

How would he begin? "Sam, before I begin, you know that I like you, a LOT, right?"

"Like? Is this the other old saying, 'Hey, let's just be friends', Roger?" Her voice went cold on that. She was waiting for it.

"NO, no, Sam, not at all! I'm sorry I gave that impression. I guess compared to how you've seen me, I do seem odd tonight." He put his arm around her shoulder. "But that's the thing, you've gotten to know me well, but you still don't KNOW me, just like I don't fully KNOW you."

She smiled tentatively. At least it wasn't that old wheeze about being "just friends, but hey! we can still have sex, right?"

"So what's bothering you?"

"Sam, I feel smothered. Don't take all this wrong, but I can't get any alone time. I'm used to having my own place, and you come to my quarters any time of the day or night like you LIVE there!" He couldn't keep the anger and frustration out of his voice this time. Her busting in on him tonight had brought it all to the surface.

She stood there silently, staring into his eyes, her emotions changing second to second. She was angry at him for being so blunt, angry at herself for being so stupid as to assume her visiting any time was okay.

He was right, though. She did pop in whenever the whim suited her, didn't consider how he'd feel about it. She finally smiled up at him.

"You know, Roger, you're absolutely right. I do come to your quarters whenever I feel like it, when I know you're there. I apologize."

She rubbed his upper arm. "I thought it was okay, because I thought we'd reached that point in our relationship."

He looked down at her. "Sam, that's another thing. Where is this relationship going? You've got me a little nervous. You went out of your way to talk to your father, talk to General O'Neill. It all seems so old-fashioned, almost like I was supposed to be going to your dad and asking for his permission to court you."

Sam didn't know what to say. She was under the impression they were bonding, falling in love, wishing to spend their lives together. He apparently didn't feel the same.

"Roger, so what am I to you? Your FUCK buddy?" she asked angrily, raising her voice. She couldn't have been THAT wrong about them! There WAS something there... wasn't there?

"Well, HELL, Samantha, what the hell else DO we do? That's ALL WE DO!" he yelled back. "I was typing in my journal about all that's happened with Tony and me, since Jeannie disappeared, the Endeavour, we met you guys here at the SGC. And sex. I put down every time you and I HAD SEX" He wasn't going to call it "making love" right now, that's for sure.

"And do you know what I realized? That's ALL WE DO!" he yelled some more.

Her mouth went tight, her eyes narrowed. He did the same. They stood there, silently, ready to rage at one another again.

She looked down, gathering her thoughts. She wanted to be sure she said this just right. Looking back up into his eyes again, her countenance had changed to understanding and affection.

"Roger, we did what I'd hoped not to do. We rushed into it too fast."

He sighed in resignation. "I think you're right. We did." He thought a minute. "Hey, YOU'RE the one who didn't want to go back to sleep that night! I was being an officer and a gentleman, for one of the few times in my life!"

She blushed. "Hey, what can I say, intelligent men turn me on. A lot. That was the night up here, when I learned you're a geologist. I knew you couldn't be as dumb as you play, you're an ASTRONAUT for crying out loud! But when you got so excited, telling me about this area, the mountains, you changed. I finally understood you, I get excited like that too."

She rubbed his upper arm again. "Like you get excited going over The Volcano data. That's a connection I can understand from someone else. I love to watch you while you're working, and you don't even know I am. You get so focused and intense. That's a turn-on to me, believe it or not, that's why I steal kisses from you when you do that."

He had to smile. "I never thought something like that would turn a woman on."

He continued, "Now I have a confession. That night, when we had our ticklefight, and I went to change? I looked in the mirror, and thought, 'Roger, this isn't your usual fling, chasing the chicks. This is something special.' I already knew we'd clicked when we went for our walk up here that night. And I knew I didn't want to just jump your bones and call it good, like I've done so many times in the past."

She still had her hand on his shoulder. He put his arms around her, drawing her close to him, glad they'd finally aired all this. They DID have a connection going. They shared many common bonds and experiences. It wasn't "just sex" but lately, that's what it seemed to have degraded to. Gratification, when and where they could.

He was only a couple inches taller than she, so it wasn't difficult to find her mouth.

They relaxed into the kiss for a few moments, and Roger pulled back. "I've got a proposal."

"What's that?"

"We stop having sex, until it MEANS something, again, like it did that first night." He nibbled around her neck and ear as he continued, "When I made love to you three times...making you come over and over again till you lost track... and you blew my mind, falling asleep on me like that, then getting me turned on all over again..." He kept up the nibbling and kissing, talking all the while, whispering in her ear.

Sam was lost. How does he DO that? All he had to do was talk to her, tell her what he'd done to her, what he was going to DO to her, and she could barely stand from being so turned on. She never thought she'd be into such talk, but his voice, his breath on her neck, on her ear was too much.

"Roger," she pleaded, "Roger, how can we agree to that, when I want to take you right here, right now?"

She felt him laugh against her neck. He lifted his head enough to pointedly look at the security camera that was pointedly looking at them. He lifted his head a little more to stick his tongue out at the camera, and whomever was on the other end.

Sam looked behind her, to see where he was looking, and saw the camera too. And the blinking red light. Oh, how she wanted to... she gave the camera the finger.

Roger lost it. He fell over, onto the soft deep grass in this hidden area, and grabbed his gut, laughing so hard he could hardly catch his breath. He screamed, "I can't believe you DID THAT!" and lost himself in hysterics again.

She put her hands on her hips, standing firm, looking down at him, then back up at the camera. The red light wasn't blinking any longer. Good, someone saw me, she thought.

Roger stopped mid-guffaw and looked at the camera too, saw the light was out. Ut oh.

"What if it was O'NEILL?" he exclaimed, climbing to his feet.

She was feeling feisty. "So what? He had no business watching us, if it was. And the Commander of the SGC has better things to do than watch obscure security cameras. He's the only one who out-ranks me on this base, so whoever it was can go to hell."

He laughed again, grabbed her around the waist, pulled her in for a deep kiss. "You know, that's one of the many things I love about you, I've never been with a woman who can crack me up like you do."

They pulled apart, and began heading back to the elevator, hand in hand.

"Roger, this thing about remaining apart, until it feels right. I think it feels very right, right now. I'm glad we talked, got things straightened up."

"Me, too, Sam." He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it.

As they started their long descent back to their floor, Roger asked, "So, do you want to get dinner somewhere after all? We can freshen up in my quarters."

"Sure," she said, walking to the elevator door, poised to exit.

As they absently stepped off the elevator, they almost ran right into General O'Neill, standing there, hands on hips.

"Obscene finger gestures, Colonel?"


	3. 08 AUG 2004

08 AUG 2004 17:23:20

FINALLY, I've got a chance to sit in my quarters and relax. Today was something else. Teal'c, Sam and I went to the SGC firing range, and I was introduced to the marvels of newer firearms and alien weaponry, with Sam and Teal'c as my guides.

First, there's the P-90. Been a LONG time since I"ve had to do weapons training! Long time since OCS and boot camp. Back in the day, we worried about lobbing grenades (still have those here, thank goodness, something familiar) and firing M-16's. P-90's make M-16's look like pop guns.

So, trying to recall technique, I practiced tossing dummy grenades, fired the P-90 from various and sundry angles, worked with a .45. Some of it was brand new, some of it was just refamiliarizing myself with what I'd been trained on so many years ago.

Sam continues to amaze me. She's not only a scientist, but when she got out there and did her thing, demonstrating, she proved she's quite a soldier as well. It was such a turn-on to see her in her fatigues, running around behind barriers and obstacles with her weapons and gear. She's had Special Ops training, like O'Neill. Hand-to-hand combat, weapons, tactics, covert ops, the whole thing.

They don't pretend they can teach me the same, of course, such training takes way longer than I have to ramp up on being on an SG team. I think I'm getting more than what civilians like Daniel get, but not quite Special Ops. Enough to be useful, not a nuisance, once I am assigned to a team. Much of it is boot camp revisited, and additional techniques and tactics that have been proven useful since way back when.

Then the weapons Teal'c was showing me! Wow! The staff weapon and (hope I spell this right) zat'nik'atel hand weapons. One shot stuns, two shots kill, three shots and you're vapor. I almost felt like Captain Kirk shooting a phaser!

Teal'c is a mystery. He seems to be a nice guy, and Daniel and Sam certainly seem to understand him. He's very quiet and reserved, kinda reminds me of Mr. Spock, but then out of the blue he'll crack some line that busts us all up. He's lived among us "Tau'ri" long enough to show his subtle humor. I get the impression he's a very passionate man about certain things. He briefly mentioned his son, that Ray'ac was training to be a warrior like himself, and he could not hide the love he has for his boy. So he's not unemotional by any stretch of the imagination. Reminds me of the saying "still waters run deep."

Daniel Jackson, now, he's a hoot. Brilliant too, knows a bajillion languages like he was born to them. Came up with the idea many years ago, before he knew of the Stargate, that the pyramids were actually Goa'uld landing pads! And this was based on his own research, before he'd ever met Catherine Langford. But that's all ancient history (heh) for the folks here. They've been doing this for many years now. Still brand new to me. All this going on, and Tony and me in our little safe NASA world in Florida, unaware of this alien threat out there. Amazing. Like we told O'Neill, we had (we thought) highest clearance. Makes me wonder if there's something even higher than THIS clearance, but I'd best not go there.

Any way, about Daniel. He's so funny, we seem to share the same sense of humor, which amuses Samantha no end. Having TWO clowns around now, with Teal'c's little comments tossed in sometimes, keeps her laughing. O'Neill came to her lab, hearing the three of us (Teal'c being his usual quiet self, and smiling) just roaring with laughter over some stupid thing. I clammed up immediately, but his presence didn't seem to deter them in the least. They laughed even harder, having drawn him in to see what was going on. Between Sam and Daniel they tried to convey whatever it was that set us off, and he just shook his head and walked off, not saying a word.

So I'm still trying to figure O'Neill out. He's certainly not like any generals I've ever worked with, at NASA! Just thought how ludicrous it would be, comparing someone like Jack O'Neill with Generals Schaeffer or Peterson! O'Neill is a WARRIOR, the other two, well... Sam's dad the General, he's a tough old bird as well. They mention General Hammond sometimes, the guy O'Neill replaced. He sounded like a great guy to work for, everyone here respects him like they do O'Neill.

Doing the weapons training all morning left us all starving to death. We got everything secured where they belong, can't leave staff weapons laying about, and went for pizza and coke, to wind down, do a debriefing of all they'd taught me. Teal'c's going to show me some more advanced hand-to-hand technique than what I already know. Or knew, rather, been a long time since I've had to do so much of this! Almost makes it look like being an astronaut is a cushy job! I told them, at lunch, that all this was making me feel like I was a wuss or something.

Teal'c raised my spirits by telling me how I and Tony and other astronauts look from an outsider's point of view.

"You and other astronauts, not knowing of the Stargate, the Goa'uld, have continued reaching and exploring your inner solar system. Going to the Moon even, on your own, no outside help or Ancient technology. Remember, like I told Major Nelson, the Goa'uld consider it most offensive that the Tau'ri achieved the stars on their own. You and your people have proven to be a threat to them, something to contend with. Your people have advanced greatly since the Goa'uld last occupied Earth, and were forcefully ejected. They have long memories, but until recent times, their perspective of the Tau'ri was the same, that you were good for nothing but hosts and slaves. Now that perspective has been shattered, thanks to those such as yourself."

I think that's the gist of what he said. I couldn't believe it. I'd never ever thought some alien race would look at us like that, having the temerity, the audacity to reach for outer space, to new worlds. Turns out the Asgard, "the Greys" as some nuts call them, have been watching us leave our little cradle of Earth for many years.

Well, he certainly lifted my spirits. Sam pointed out that our two branches of the government just had different paths, that's all, but with the same goal, of advancing and protecting Humankind. The Tau'ri as Teal'c says. Daniel's been teaching me the language.

When we got back to the SGC, I pleaded with Sam to let me do something unphysical, at least until the pizza settled. So she set me to work with Daniel on more language studies, things to look for when we're offworld that need to be studied.

That's how the afternoon went, until Daniel finally called a halt. He gets as fired up about his stuff as Sam and I do about ours. Scientists, go figure, we're a buncha geeks.

Sam's here, more later.

(Real life kicks in.)

Roger opened the door to let Sam in, after minimizing his journal. "Hey, sweets, how's your afternoon been going?" He gave her a quick kiss.

She looked at his computer desk, back to him. "No complaints. Is this a bad time?"

He smiled, "No, I was just recapping the day in my journal. For the future biography someone's going to write about the only geologist to ever witness a caldera volcano blowing up."

She laughed as she settled in her usual position on his bed, there being no comfy chairs around to park on. "You and that volcano. Some day, when you can break down the data for us poor lowly humans to understand, you'll have to show me the marvels you've discovered."

"Tau'ri," he said, trying to do his best Daniel imitation. He sat down by her, leaning heavily on her, using her for a cushion. "Daniel's been on me all afternoon, learning basic Goa'uld."

"Yep, good tactic, learn the language and don't let them know you know the language. Can get some good intel that way."

He knew that, of course, one reason he'd learned Russian so many years ago.

"Yes, and don't tell Daniel I know Russian, at least not yet. I want to focus on Goa'uld right now, but I'd like to practice my Russian on him. I still get to use it when we're on Mir."

She pulled him to her, resting his head on her breasts, lounging back on the pillows piled against the wall. "Say something sweet to me in Russian, dahlink."

He muttered something to her.

"And you said?"

He turned to face her, his face between her breasts, "I want to make love to you." He looked up at her eyes, smiling. "What else would I say to you after all?"

She laughed, pulling him closer to kiss him. "You probably don't have much occassion to say that on Mir, right?"

He shrugged. "It does get lonely up there!"

She hugged him around the neck, putting him into a soft choke-hold, and laughed. "Oh, Roger, Roger, what am I ever going to do with you?"

"Choke me to death?" he squeaked dramatically.

She released him. He rubbed his throat. "I'll have to check with Teal'c on those hand-to-hand combat techniques he's going to show me!"

She pushed him down onto his back, straddling his hips. "You love it and you know it!"

He smiled sheepishly, pulled her to his mouth, "Oh yeah, baby, make it hurt so good!"

They headed for the cafeteria after the lovemaking, hand-in-hand, when they were interrupted by O'Neill calling them from behind.

"Healey!"

He turned, went to attention, but didn't salute as he would have at NASA if a General beckoned him in such a way. He'd learned O'Neill was right, when he said on Thor's ship that he wasn't big on such protocol. Roger didn't want to appear disrespectful, so attention sans salute would suit them both.

"Sir!"

"You caught up on every kind of aircraft the military uses?"

"Yes, sir, if it's got a stick, I can fly it."

O'Neill smiled a bit, thinking, We'll see about THAT. "Tomorrow morning, airfield, Hanger 23, 0600. Be there with flight gear."

"Yes, sir!"

O'Neill turned and went back to his office. Roger remained as he was until the General was out of sight, and turned to Sam, the excitement showing in his face and eyes.

"What am I going to be flying in tomorrow?" he demanded. After all the wonders he'd seen so far, he couldn't imagine what would be in Hanger 23 at the airfield!

Her blue eyes twinkled at him. "I don't think I'm going to tell you."

Roger pleaded with her, "Sam, PLEASE! You've got to tell me!"

She kissed him quickly, "Sweets, it could be a couple of things, we've got some interesting things tucked away at the airfield. And that's all I'm going to say." She continued to the cafeteria, leaving him there thinking so hard he'd not noticed her retreat.

"SAM! Wait up, come on, can't you tell me? I'm BEGGING!"

She had to smile. Poor guy, here he was an astronaut, the pilot of space shuttles, something O'Neill had never even flown. He was aching to know, NOW! But she really didn't know what O'Neill had in mind, so she relented.

"Roger, I really don't know, honestly. My telling you tonight wouldn't change anything. Let's just say the aircraft won't be totally unfamiliar to you, just more... advanced than what you've seen."

That made the agony of wondering even worse! She was adamant though, she wasn't going to say any more, so all he could do was bide his time and be patient. Astronauts knew patience: you're sitting on the launchpad, strapped in, leaning back at a ninety-degree angle, and on a two-hour delay. Anything was better than THAT Hell!

He followed behind her, picking up a tray, and shrugged. He'd wait and see.


	4. 09 AUG 2004

09 AUG 2004 0538

(Real life still doing its thang.)

The airman dropped Roger off in front of Hanger 23, and showed him the direction to find the lockers of flight gear.

"Right that way, sir."

"Thank you, airman." Roger said as he grabbed his gear pack. He'd forced himself to get to sleep at a decent hour the night before, so he'd be well-rested and ready to take on this most exciting of days.

It felt almost like a launch day, and he'd had enough of those to know how to prepare. Well-rested. Light breakfast. Plenty of fluids, but hit the head first. At least he wouldn't be on a launchpad for hours, wearing a diaper as astronauts are required to do. It was a good thing he loved space.

He found the size flightsuit he'd need and began to prepare. He'd done this so many times, he didn't even have to think about it, and was soon ready.

At precisely 0556, he looked up to see O'Neill at the locker room door, in his own suit and ready to fly.

Roger stood up, gave the outside of his suit one last run-through with his fingers, and grabbed his helmet and oxygen gear.

"Sir, I didn't see you standing there."

O'Neill was silent for a moment, making Roger nervous. This was their first real time alone, just him and the General. He reminded himself how Sam, Daniel and Teal'c acted around this intimidating man. They respected him, yes, but certainly did not fear him. The laughing incident in the lab was proof of that. He'd wait and see what O'Neill would do.

Jack smiled a little, to show Healey he had nothing to worry about. "I was going to ask how it was going, but then remembered you're an astronaut." Like he could forget! "Of course you know the gear."

Roger smiled back, relaxing a bit. "Yes, sir, it's second nature to me."

O'Neill motioned for Roger to lead the way out of the locker room, into the main body of the hanger. He indicated a direction that was cordoned off by a huge security screen. "This way, Major, now it's my turn to show you some wonders."

O'Neill pulled a bit ahead of Roger as they walked across the huge building, anticipating the look on Healey's face when he beheld the X-302 for the first time.

Roger froze on the spot as he rounded the security screen. Before him was the most amazing flying machine he'd ever seen. USAF X-302 was plastered on the side. And that was about all that looked familiar to him. His heartbeat jumped. Calm down, Roger, or you'll kick over and die right on the spot.

The feeling was akin to his first upclose look at the newly made space shuttle, the Enterprise. He was there that day she was unveiled for the first time, so many years ago. He was eager to check out the cockpit then, and as eager to do the same now.

O'Neill wasn't disappointed. This man knew aircraft. He had that look of awe and wonder on his face all true pilots knew. He didn't fly just as a job, this was a passion of his, like The Volcano. He knew the sheer joy of flying, the freedom, the glory, the strength and power in the craft he controlled.

"I'll give you the grand tour," Jack said. He led Roger around the outside of the craft, pointing out all the things a pilot needs to know, all the additions and changes Roger wouldn't know about. He explained the technology behind it, how it was fully Human-made, but with modifications adapted from alien craft. He didn't see the need to mention the X-301.

They finally got to the cockpit that Roger was so eager to see. He looked in on one side, O'Neill on the other, and liked what he saw. The inside looked very familiar. That's probably what Sam meant, he thought, that it'd be familiar and new at the same time.

"Look familiar, Healey?"

"Yes, sir, resembles the F-18 cockpit."

"Exactly, let me show you the differences, and we'll take her up." Jack pointed out the modifications which accessed the newer, advanced technologies. Roger was soaking it up like a sponge.

"You got it?"

"Yes, sir," and Roger repeated back what he'd been told. He was ready. He was itching to take the controls, but knew it was prudent to just take the co-pilot's seat and let Jack run the show. For now.

They completed donning their gear and climbed into the pilot's and co-pilot's seats, and started the traditional pre-flight check. As O'Neill activated and repeated each system, Roger gave the usual "Check" in response as he saw the lights on his board go on. He noticed that the "Inertial Dampener" light did not go on, nor did O'Neill mention it.

This ought to be interesting, both men thought to themselves.

He waited patiently while O'Neill contacted the tower, got final clearance for take-off and taxied to the end of the runway.

Jack glanced back at Roger one last time before firing up the engines.

"Ready, Healey?" he said over the radio.

"Yes, sir!" he hoped he didn't sound TOO eager.

"Let's rock," and Jack fired her up.

Jack took off as fast and as hard as safety regulations allowed, wishing he could push the envelope on that, knowing he couldn't. Those regs were there for a reason. God, I sound like such a General, he thought. He knew the limits of this craft. He wanted to find out Roger's limits.

He was in for a surprise.

As the flight around the area proceeded, O'Neill pointed out relevant information to Healey: how the craft handled, the craft's stress specifications, little tricks a pilot would need to know. He showed him the basic moves any US aircraft would make.

"Don't get too cocky though, until you've got a feel for her," he said needlessly.

Roger thought, You state the obvious. "Yes, sir."

Jack smiled and looked back again at Roger. "Now, I've shown you the basic moves she can make, ready for some fun?"

Roger laughed. "Yes, sir, any time you're ready." He had no idea what this thing could do, and he suspected O'Neill was going to do his damnedest to either terrify him or make him black out from pulling too many g's. Watch and be amazed, General, he thought smugly.

Jack started off with a few 360-degree barrel rolls. Nothing from Healey.

Jack then pulled the craft up and took a sharp 90-degree turn, feeling the g's push him in his seat, watching Healey flow with it. Still nothing, handling it fine.

Jack tried a few more maneuvers that only the bravest, or dumbest, pilot would try in a traditional craft, trying to get a rise out of his co-pilot. No reaction.

He leveled out the craft. "Healey? Are you all right?"

His calm voice responded. "Certainly, sir, just wondering when we're going to pull some serious g's."

Roger smiled behind his O-mask. That'll do it, he's going to lose it now. He was right.

Jack felt a surge of anger. So, he wants to see some g's, huh? And he pulled back hard on the stick, going STRAIGHT UP.

Roger looked at the display. Any second now... THERE, three g's! They were still heading up. O'Neill showed no sign of pulling out of it yet.

3.6 g's.

3.9 g's.

Roger felt the pressure, so familiar to him. That was rapidly changing as the g-force they were experiencing shot past the usual 3 g's of a shuttle launch. He was getting worried about the pilot.

"General O'Neill?"

No response.

4.2 g's.

"GENERAL!" Roger yelled through the headset.

4.4 g's!

"O'NEILL!" Still going up. Jack's head started to loll on his neck. He'd passed out, pulling the stick toward him, unable to release it.

Healey could delay no longer, or he'd be incapacitated as well. He flicked the switch giving the co-pilot full control of the vessel, turned on the inertial dampeners, and took the stick.

He angled them out of the climb, letting the craft free-fall.

"C'mon, girl, show me you're as maneuverable as the General says you are!"

Going from over 4 g's to zero g would've made most normal humans pass out (that is, if they were still conscious), but Roger wasn't a normal human. Jack's head seemed to float from that awkward angle, and blood began to pour back into his brain.

They'd climbed so high that Roger let the aircraft plummet in free-fall for a few moments, working the stick to keep the craft steady as it arrowed toward the rapidly approaching ground. When he'd hit 30,000 feet, he gently straightened her out and let her fly at a comfortable cruising speed.

He did a routine check of the area, looking outside, checking his displays. He'd have to land her. He started his descent, and contacted the tower.

Jack heard Healey talking to the tower, as if from a distance. He was still too out of it to take the controls back, so let the Major continue as he was doing.

He'd come to while they were at zero g, plunging to Earth, his head screaming in pain as the blood pumped back in. As Healey gently and expertly pulled them out of the dive, leveling her off, normal weight returned and the screeching headache began to subside.

Jack gathered his thoughts before he spoke up. He'd been such an idiot, thinking he could do this to an astronaut, a man who could handle such stresses.

"Healey," he said quietly, almost meekly.

"Sir?" came the calm reply.

"No need to mention this to anyone else," Jack said.

"Agreed, sir."

By the time Roger landed the X-302, O'Neill was again in good spirits. Jack had come to terms with the stupid thing he'd done, and admired Healey for handling the situation, and the aircraft, tactfully.

Jesus, I would've killed both of us with that stupid act, if he wasn't so damned good, Jack thought. I guess he showed me who the better pilot is.

Roger let the X-302 creep to a stop, back again where the security screen could be replaced. He began unfastening himself from the seat, disconnecting the O-mask, and releasing the top for both himself and O'Neill.

They climbed down the little gangway, back to solid ground. O'Neill didn't seem to be too steady on his feet. Roger wasn't sure if he should offer assistance or not. He opted not to, unless the General actually started to take a header.

They both stretched a little bit, as pilots often do after being strapped in and pulling such forces. Roger was silent. He thought it prudent to let the General speak first.

"So, Healey, what'd you think?"

"I can safely say that is the most incredible craft I've EVER flown, sir! We certainly can't do that in the shuttle!"

O'Neill laughed, glad they had this understanding. He certainly wasn't going to noise it about what had happened!

They began walking back to the lockers.

"So I understand that landing the shuttle is like landing a brick with wings."

09 AUG 2004 1200

Sam and Roger took the seats Daniel and Teal'c had been holding for them in the SGC cafeteria.

Teal'c was anxious to hear how Roger's first flight in the X-302 had gone. He was expert at flying it himself, and wanted to get this man's opinion of it.

He waited politely until the two took their seats.

"Major Healey, did you enjoy flying in the X-302 this morning?"

"Teal'c, it's the most amazing thing I've ever flown! That thing can do things I never dreamed an Earth...Tau'ri...craft can do!"

Sam and Teal'c looked at him in surprise.

"You actually FLEW it this morning? The General let you?" Sam asked, amazed. "Going in cold like that?"

Roger blushed, realizing what he'd said. "Yes, well, it so resembled the F-18, and the General had given me such a good rundown on all the modifications, that he let me take the stick for a while, pull a few moves."

He took a bite of food, chewed, swallowed it. "That thing kicks ass."

Teal'c nodded in agreement. "It does, indeed, kick ass."

09 AUG 2004 1202

Jack watched Carter and Healey walk toward the cafeteria, and went back into his office. He punched up the personnel file for one Healey, Roger E., Major, US Army.

He clicked and scanned until he found what he'd been looking for.

Damn.

Graduated top of his class, "Top Gun School," 1978. Along with Nelson, Anthony L., Major, US Air Force.

(Journalistic interlude.)

09 AUG 2004 16:30:56

I keep thinking that there cannot be another wonder I can learn here at the SGC, and I'm proven wrong. I wonder what the next surprise is going to be.

I flew the most amazing craft this morning! The X-302. O'Neill let me take the stick, and we pulled some awesome g's. I did some great moves, nothing I'd ever try in an F-18! The cockpit was very similar to an F-18. Sam and Teal'c were amazed O'Neill let me fly it cold, but I pointed out it was very similar to what I'd flown before. I landed it too.

My woman is knocking, more later.

(Reality bites.)

Roger's face was still alight from the flight this morning. He must've been recapping it in his journal, Sam thought.

"Sam!" he hugged her joyfully, burying his face in her neck, giving her quick nibbles. He looked up again. "That was freaking AMAZING this morning!"

She couldn't help but laugh at the joy in his face, his voice. This was a real pilot.

"Sam, what's next? Oh, wait, I was going to ask if someone was going to beam me up somewhere, then I remembered that has already happened too! I've been to another planet light years away, I've seen a caldera volcano erupt almost in my face and lived, I've been dematerialized and rematerialized, fired energy weapons, flown a craft made by the US government based on alien technology! What else IS there?"

She'd just learned from O'Neill what Healey had done at Top Gun school. And he told her to show him the next wonder.

She didn't say anything. She went to his computer, logged herself in and started clicking. She was ready to bring it up. She turned to face him.

"Okay, turn around and close your eyes, I've got your next toy to play with."

He laughed at the mystery, and complied. Sam pulled up the external schematics and a small image of the X-303, the Prometheus.

"You ready?"

"Yep, can I see?"

"Turn around."

Footnotes:

Russ Conklin, Grad student, Biomedical Engineering, Wright State University:  
"Astronauts experience about 3 G's during takeoff. Although the space shuttle could probably go faster, it is limited to this acceleration because of the trajectory it takes during launch and because 3 G's is considered the maximum G-force the astronauts can withstand and still be able to move their heads and arms enough to control the spacecraft (even though the shuttle is usually computer controlled during launch, the astronauts need to be able to reach the controls if there is an emergency"

"Aerospace Medicine" Encarta. Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 1997.  
Acceleration of Blackout in Fighter Pilots:  
"If a force from 4 to 6 G is sustained for more than a few seconds, the resulting symptoms range from visual impairment to total blackout."


	5. 10 AUG 2004

10 AUG 2004 Tuesday 14:14:03

Finally got an hour break. Sam showed me the X-303 yesterday afternoon, and I was over the Moon (again). Here I thought it couldn't get any cooler and it did.

No point reiterating it all here, but needless to say I was stunned, literally stunned. She just showed me preliminary information, of course, not the detail I'm used to at NASA. I was firing all sorts of questions at her, of which she knew most answers, but I finally got to the point where even she couldn't tell me, brilliant as she is. She said something that I bet she doesn't have to say too often: I don't know.

Wanting to save her ego a bit, because she truly looked downcast that she couldn't answer my questions, I told her that astronauts work with all sorts of mission specialists and teams, we don't expect one person to know EVERYTHING after all! I think that logical point made her feel better.

Endeavor. I miss that little girl. I realize I haven't jotted down my feelings about that morning, after being beamed onto Thor's ship (and again, I never thought I'd ever write something like that, outside of a Star Trek novel), and all this started happening, I never really thought about the ship herself. Still kind of hard, after Challenger and Columbia. I thank God every day that in the end, all we lost was the ship, no lives. Atlantis managed to retrieve the crew and mission specialists we'd deboarded just before the meteor hit. I wonder what those people thought when this happened within minutes of their exiting the craft.

The dangers of 'primitive' space travel, after all. Didn't seem so primitive until I got to know about the Asgard and the SGC. Now I'll simply face different dangers. Not that I mind. It's for the defense of not only my country, but of Earth herself, of all life, all Humankind. And like Sam pointed out once, IF the Goa'uld show up, who are they going to try to subdue first? Yep, the USA. We're the sole superpower, if WE fall early on, what's the rest of the world going to do? Get us out of the picture, the rest of the world will be easy pickings. I know, I'm tooting my patriotic horn, but it's true, we are the sole superpower, now that the USSR is gone.

And that leads to what I've been doing all morning, and up till now. Indeed, up till now. Like Teal'c would say. He's quite a guy. Get him talking about something that interests him, and he really opens up. He's learned a lot about us Tau'ri since he came here those years ago, when he turned Shol'va against his "god" Apophis, but sometimes he comes out with the most outrageous questions about Human, or usually American, culture. Usually some nonsense he's seen on TV, so Sam, Daniel or I have to set him straight.

I broke the ice by asking him about how his son is doing. His countenance totally changes when he speaks of his son. I can tell it hurts him deeply that he cannot be with his son all the time, that he's missed so much not getting to see him grow up and become a young man. No greater reward for a father, or a mother, to see his child grow to be a productive, responsible young adult, and that's what Ray'ac is becoming. Teal'c told me how his son literally saved all of Earth, when Anubis was trying to piledrive through the Gate's iris with an energy weapon, keeping the wormhole going the full 38 minutes each time. Ray'ac, in one of their spacecraft, blasted the energy weapon from the other end. That must have been truly amazing.

It's amazing all this has been going on, all these years, with 99.9999 of humankind being totally oblivious to it. Ray'ac saves Earth, Master Bra'tac saves Earth, SG-1 has at least a few times, other SG teams of course have a hand in it all. O'Neill has only been Commander of the SGC for a few months now, so most of this was under General Hammond's command. Like I said before, everyone has the utmost respect for this man. I'm hoping I'll be able to meet him some day!

So this talk with Teal'c all morning. He was going over more about the Goa'uld and by association, the Jaffa and Tok'ra, the Unas, the races outside my little corner of Mama Nature. It's so stunning, but I'm soaking it all in. Sam's going to meet with Daniel, me and Teal'c to go over any other points we need to cover to prep me for off-world work. SG-1's week-off rotation is coming up, so we'll finalize any last details of my training, review it all with O'Neill (who gets final say, yes or no, if someone's ready to join a team) and the week after, I'm hoping I'll be assigned a team. Like I said before, a few teams are already asking for me. That's so great for my ego!

More later maybe.

10 AUG 2004 23:53:02 Tuesday (Additional)

Back again. After that last entry, Sam, Teal'c and General Carter (visiting a few days), and I, went back to the firing range for more practice. One session surely wasn't enough to bring me back up to speed! Using firearms isn't something an astronaut and test pilot usually needs to worry about.

General Carter's an amazing guy. He and Hammond came up through the ranks together, and they're both a couple of tough old warbirds, seeing a lot of action in their lives. Sam defered to him, as he taught me some tactics that I'd never thought of before. Between him, Teal'c and Sam, I'm starting to feel like a real fighter. Ha! Me, a fighter, a soldier? Tony should see me now!

I've been changing these past weeks, in a good way too. That run for the Gate on P2X-899 showed that while yes, I can pass physicals just fine, I'm not in QUITE the shape I could be! So Sam and I have established a work-out routine, with Daniel and Teal'c often joining us. I've been hanging out with SG-1 so much, that I hope I can connect as well with whatever team I'm ultimately assigned to. With them being on their off-week rotation those first days here at the SGC, and being the elite team, I can't get any better training/refresher, so other teams surely can't complain about my preparation for off-world travel.

It's fun working out in the gym with the guys and Sam. O'Neill will sometimes pop in and he and Teal'c will work the weights together. I get sort of quiet, watching the four of them interacting. I get the sense O'Neill misses being on the team. He's got the weight of all the SGC and its personnel on him, not a four-person team. I think that's why they've not got a fourth, after all these months, he doesn't want to make that cut so complete. Maybe he's hoping, somehow, that someone might take over command and he can re-join "his team." I know he still feels that Sam, Daniel and Teal'c are still his team. That's why Sam is still being called the "interim commander."

Now that I've been toning up somewhat, Teal'c said he'll be ready to start giving me some hand-to-hand advice and technique tomorrow. We sparred a little bit in the ring, so he could get an idea of where I'm at in that regard. Never once came close to hurting him, of course, and he was being very kind to me. It was a good workout, though, got my heart and lungs working. That mad dash for the Gate sure did. I'm happy to say ALL of us were pretty beat when we got there, here I am almost fifty years old (gads, 20 days and counting) and I'd handled it better than some of the others, as did Tony. Jeannie was exhausted by then, having been stuck in that hovel for so long, not being overly physical, and additionally just being clocked by her cousin, but she was true to her word. She told me later that she told Tony, "If you hold my hand, I'll be the wind!" and she was. Hmmm, makes me wonder about those Ancient genes of hers, is there really something to her, not just the technology? Something that makes her different?

Of course, having a caldera volcano (that still amazes me) about to blow up in your face will make anyone be the wind, or dead. I wish we could've actually SEEN it, although I don't know from where, probably space would be the safest place, but at least I've got something to work with. The data are coming together and it's exciting, but it saddens me that I can't share it with fellow geologists. Some day.

Shortly after we got back from the firing range, General Carter got a message from one of his Tok'ra associates, and within minutes he and SG-1 were heading for the Gate. Sam only had time to give me a quick peck before grabbing her gear and heading out. I watched them leave from the main conference room.

I don't get too anxious when she's offworld like this. That's the nature of our service to our country, after all. I can't fret when Tony and I are about to have 4 million pounds of fuel lit up under our asses, now can I? Nobody would ever leave the cradle of Earth if that was the case.

But still, seeing her leave like that, with Dad, Teal'c and Daniel, a small part of me asks, Is this going to be the last time I see her?

She and I are really connecting, even closer than ever. The training, the walks topside, the awesome making love (and yes, that's what it is now), going out with Daniel, Teal'c and whomever else wants to come along (O'Neill does once in a while).

Sometimes a big group of us will go if we're all off shift at the same time, invading the Outback or some larger place. I don't remember all the names, but a lot of the younger personnel will shyly ask me questions about being an astronaut, what it's like being up there. All the amazing stuff they do here, and these kids want to hear me talk about the space program. Makes me glad the Stargate hasn't changed their perspective so much that earthly matters bore them to death.

Oops, the off-world activation is coming on, more later.

(Reality kicks in.)

Roger jogged to the control room, as O'Neill had ordered him to do in such a situation, to observe procedures. He saw O'Neill approaching from the other side, both reaching the door at the same time.

Walter saw the General and Major enter. The Sargeant looked at his display, then turned to the General, "Sir, it's a code Red from SG-1, medical emergency!"


	6. 11 AUG 2004

11 AUG 2004 00:23:19 Wednesday

All the blood drained from Roger's face. O'Neill turned to look at him, then back to the Sargeant. "Get them in here!" He flicked on the intercom, "Medical team, to the embarkation room, stat!"

The next few seconds were hours. Sam? Daniel? Teal'c? General Carter? What could have happened?

O'Neill had to suffer through this as well, that was HIS team! The two men could only wait. The first two were through, Teal'c supporting Samantha on his powerful arm. Daniel and General Carter burst through behind them, Daniel landing hard on the ramp.

Even as Daniel was recovering from his tumble, he was signaling the Control Room, "CLOSE THE IRIS!"

Relief flooded through Roger. She's upright, she's on her feet mostly, not unconscious, could still be badly wounded. He could do nothing but watch; he'd be an obstruction down there with the medical team, who'd shown up with impressive alacrity.

Teal'c, still supporting her weight, very gently laid her down on the gurney, and he and Daniel watched as the medical team and General Carter whisked her away to the infirmary. They wanted to follow, but knew they'd only be in the way. They knew the routine, too well unfortunately.

Roger turned to O'Neill, desperation written on his face, "Sir, with your persmission?"

"Go, Healey," and he motioned for him to leave.

The General watched Healey tear out of there. This was the Major's first experience with an incoming medical emergency, an unscheduled off-world activation. And to have this first time be involving Carter. Ironic.

He would have to keep an eye on Healey, when it came to Carter. They at least were not going to be on the same team, although Healey would be a good choice for the fourth member. Like Carter, he had both the military and academic background, thus filling two roles at the same time. But from what he'd seen of the two, and the way Jacob so clearly approved of this man, he didn't want to jeopardize that relationship. If they were on the same team, the regs would most definitely have something to say about it.

He looked down at Daniel and Teal'c, signaled he'd join them down there.

"What happened, Daniel?"

"Natives, with primitive ballistics. Gun powder, basically. Started shooting what looked and sounded like MUSKETS at us!"

"Most primitive, but unfortunately most effective in causing bodily harm," said Teal'c. "We were almost to the Gate, ready to send our signal, when Colonel Carter was struck. Fortunately, the impact sent her into me and I could support her and run to the Gate."

"Has she stayed conscious all this time?"

Teal'c replied, having been the one supporting her, "Yes, I believe so. I told her to continue talking to me, to be sure she was not losing awareness, and she told me I was her knight in shining armor." He lifted an eyebrow, picturing the image in his mind, indicating to O'Neill that it wasn't as dire as it seemed.

"Let's check on her in a few minutes, give the docs a chance to work on her. With Jacob and Healey there, it'll be crazy in the infirmary."

"How has Major Healey taken this so far, General?" Teal'c asked.

"When we heard 'SG-1' and 'medical emergency', I think he wanted to faint. He went white as a sheet. But he maintained, didn't freak or anything. Very steady." O'Neill blushed slightly, remembering the X-302 incident. "He's very good at dealing with extremely stressful situations. He's demonstrated that to me adequately." The other two men thought he was refering to the current situation, and nodded in agreement.

Roger held back a little, watching the medics, gurney and General Carter head into the infirmary. Jacob glanced up just before passing through the door, signalled for Healey to join them. Roger had not been sure if Sam's father would like him there, in this most dire of circumstances, and was honored Jacob expected him to be by her side.

Jacob and Roger maintained a discreet distance while the doctors did their work.

After a time, the doctor finally noticed the two men standing nearby, kindly out of the way. She went over to talk to them, addressing her father.

"General Carter, she's going to be fine. A fairly deep wound to the left shoulder-blade, but no indication of internal injuries, no significant damage to the main arteries and veins. Once we patch her up, she'll be able to leave in just a couple of days, long as she's got her arm supported, not placing any stress on that shoulder."

Roger whooshed in relief, and the doctor turned toward him, wondering why he was there.

Jacob smiled at Roger's reaction, turned to the doctor. "He's Samantha's... well... boyfriend?" Roger chuckled at the tone in the General's voice. It had been a long time since he was refered to as someone's "boyfriend," especially by the father! He was usually called something else, but that was a different story.

She smiled her understanding. "She's being transfered to a bed, and will be able to visit with you in a little while. I've given her a pain killer, so she'll be out of it when you see her. Go tell General O'Neill, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c they can breathe now." She suspected they were just outside the door, and when Carter and Healey left, she saw she was right.

Jack waited till both men were out, and turned to Jacob. "How is she?"

Jacob told them all what he'd heard from the doctor, that she could see them in a while. He and the other men left, planning on returning in a few moments, and Roger was in the hallway, alone.  
He didn't see O'Neill had stopped some distance away, watching him.

He saw Healey leaning against the concrete wall, eyes closed, breathing another sigh of relief. I wonder what's going on in his head right now. He's probably not faced this much as an astronaut, seeing a loved one get hurt out on duty.

Jack knew a lot, but he didn't know the life of an astronaut from the inside. Of course he knew it's the most dangerous profession on Earth, but to be intimately involved with it, working with a team of fellow astronauts, and the training they went through, even Jack O'Neill couldn't know that. He didn't know that over the years, Healey had been through this agony, seeing Tony hurt in one way or another. Or him being hurt, and Tony keeping vigil over him.

Now Roger had that feeling with Sam. They would get through this. He and General Carter, and Sam. She wasn't seriously injured, and Roger sent up a silent prayer of thanks for that. He stood upright to get a cup of coffee, and wait until he could visit Sam. He saw O'Neill there, watching him.

"General, would you join me for a cup of coffee?"

Jack watched him as he approached. He was taking it well. Good. "Sure, Healey, the guys just went. We'll come back in a little while."

A half hour later, Samantha opened her eyes blearily, tried to focus on those around her. Dad on her left, Roger on her right, both holding a hand, and the General, Daniel and Teal'c at the foot of the bed.

She smiled to herself, closed and reopened her eyes, pleased to see all her favorite guys surrounding her.

"My favorite guys..." she muttered.

Roger and Jacob looked at one another, like asking, "What did she say?"

Jacob leaned toward her ear, "What was that, kitten?"

Her father's voice made her more cognizant of her surroundings. "Oh, Dad, um... nothing, nothing. How long was I out?"

"Not too long, Sam, fortunately you weren't seriously wounded. But I think you put five years on Roger here."

She turned to face Roger, his face leaning in toward her own, him pulling her hand up to kiss it gently, hugging it to him.

"Dr. Healey," she whispered, smiling. He laughed, his eyes filling so they sparkled. She loved how his green eyes did that, always finding humor and laughter.

He leaned in close to her ear, "Dr. Carter. Earth to Dr. Carter, this is Mission Control."

She laughed softly, the men at the foot of her bed smiling at her response. Laughter was the best medicine in many ways. Roger looked up at Jacob.

"She loves it when I use my 'astronaut' voice, as she calls it."

The five men continued like that for a time, then Daniel, Teal'c and O'Neill said they'd each be coming back to visit with her.

"Sam, I'm going to go talk to Teal'c, Daniel and Jack, go over what we found on the planet." He looked up at Roger, who sat up straight as the General arose from his seat, not sure if he should leave as well.

Carter motioned him back into his seat. "Please, stay, Roger. We'll go over it all with Samantha when she's feeling better."

Roger smiled his appreciation, and resumed his seat, taking Sam's hand once more.

As Jacob turned to leave, he paused at the door to watch them both, Roger unaware of his presence. Samantha was all he could see.

I think this incident has taught the two of them something, Selmak thought to Jacob.

They continued to watch a few more moments. I think you're right, Jacob replied.

Roger stayed with her until sleep overtook him, and he relaxed into the chair, snoring softly to himself. Samantha woke up, no longer in a stupor, feeling much more like herself.

She watched him sleep, head moving up and down in synch with his snoring, hunched over his folded arms.

She smiled as she watched him. She had a vague recollection of him saying something, and her laughing in response, the men around her smiling too. Leave it to Roger to make her laugh as she climbs back into consciousness!

She reached out and took his big hand in hers, watching him stir in response, and placed it on her. Holding it to herself almost like a teddy bear, she went back to sleep, a soft smile on her face.

And so they remained until morning.

Roger felt someone shaking his shoulder. "Major Healey?"

Nothing.

His shoulder shook a little harder. "Major Healey!"

He started, looking around, "Sam?" He looked down at her sleeping form. All was well.

"Shhh," the nurse commanded. "Sir, General Carter has authorized me to talk to you about her. She's doing quite well, you should go get some breakfast. I will be right over there at my desk if she needs anything."

Roger looked at the nurse, then back to Sam. "You sure she's doing okay?"

She smiled kindly at him. "Yes, sir, perfectly well. In fact, she'll be ready for discharge by this time tomorrow morning. It's almost 0900!"

Roger stood and stretched. "0900? I slept here that long?"

"Yes, sir."

He looked at Sam once more, leaned down and kissed her softly on the mouth. She stirred in her sleep, smiling, but did not waken.

He whispered, "I'll be back as soon as I can, sweets." He looked at the nurse, "Please contact me or General Carter if she needs anything to keep her busy today. She'll probably be bored to tears, knowing her."

The nurse smiled as he went to the door, "Yes, sir." She knew Colonel Carter.

Roger, Jacob, Daniel, Teal'c and Jack all paid visits to Sam throughout the day, bringing her things to read, talking to her about goings-on at the SGC and off-world, knowing how much she hated inactivity. Roger brought a chess board, and they discovered they were evenly matched in skill, nobody truly gaining an obvious upper hand.

Roger checked his watch. 22:45. She'd be released in the morning.

"Roger, you really don't need to hang about here. I'm fine, I really am. Let me get one good night's sleep under my head, and before we know it, it will be morning and they can let me out of here!" She stroked his hand. "This is something you'll need to get used to, you can't just drop everything if one of your team mates gets wounded. Sadly, this isn't too uncommon for the work we're doing."

He knew she was right. He knew, intellectually, that this was a dangerous path he'd chosen, but this made it all very real and concrete to him. "So you won't mind if I leave, go to my quarters? I want to check in on you in a few hours at least, make sure you're sleeping okay."

He leaned toward her and gave her a kiss. "I love to watch you sleep, you know that."

She knew he'd check on her any way, with or without approval, and smiled a yes to him. He gave her one last kiss, and told her to have them call if she need anything, anything at all, he'd be in his quarters.

11 AUG 2004 23:02:53 Wednesday

Sam got hurt on that mission mentioned previously. Left shoulder. The bullet went in one of the few places her pack or vest wasn't covering her upper torso! If this was a musket, like Daniel said it seemed, that shooter was extremely accurate, or lucky!

I know she's doing fine, but I wish I could be there with her. She insisted I come back here, at least for a while, so she could get one more good night's sleep. She's going to be released by 0900 in the morning, and will have to put her arm in a sling to keep weight off the shoulder.

One of the things we did today when I was visiting her was go over the trip to Florida in a week. The wedding day is the 22nd, so we'll get there a few days before so I can do my Best Man duties. I'm going to throw the most crazy whacked out party they've ever seen Roger Healey throw: a formal function. That will really throw them for a loop, won't it?

I've been looking at real estate ads for this area, and also for FL for selling the house.

Oh, screw.

(Reality comes back for a while.)

Tony Nelson started awake when the phone ring. He glanced at the clock as he grabbed the headset, hoping to get it before it could wake Jeannie. One ten in the a.m.?

"Hello?"

"Tony."

"Roj, what's wrong?"

There was a pause at the other end.

"Roj? What's wrong? What's going on?"

"Tony, she got hurt yesterday. She'll be out in the morning, but I'm freaking."

Jeannie woke when she heard Tony raise his voice, and sat up, quietly listening to the conversation at that end.

Tony ached for his friend, the tone in Roger's voice cutting into him. "Roger..."

"Tony, I know, I just had to talk to you."

"I know."

They talked for almost an hour, Jeannie trying to get the gist of what she could from her end. She'd heard them talk this way before, half-complete sentences, stutters, moans of agreement. It's like they had their own language. As much as she loved Tony, and Roger too as a dear friend (who could be a pest), she didn't understand when they got into this state. They closed out all distractions, going into a level of communication all their own. She thought it was like they were both speaking aloud and reading one another's minds.

Tony was beginning to wrap it up.

"Yeah, yeah, sure you will... you and what army, Army? Yeah, okay, gotcha. I'll see you in a week, man!" and put the headset back on the cradle.

"'Sure you will?'" Jeannie asked.

"Yeah, he said when he sees me, he's going to 'kick my ass' because he's been working out with Teal'c for the last couple weeks."

"Anthony, has he ever beaten you in a wrestling match? As I recall... " she thought a moment, of the times they'd tussle around after a ball game, or at the beach, or a barbecue. "No, I do not recall him ever winning such a match."

He yawned and stretched, "Naw, he's just blowing smoke, covering up being nervous about Sam. She'll be fine, though, and ready to fly next week, the doctor said."

Jeannie was glad. She was looking forward to seeing Roger again, and his new lady. Their friends Daniel and Teal'c had to beg off from coming to the ceremony, but both had sent lovely presents with the command they not be opened until the wedding day.

Tony lay back down, lifted his arm for Jeannie to snuggle under, and they slipped back into their interrupted sleep.


	7. 12 AUG 2004

12 AUG 2004 0900

Roger was at the nurse's station in the infirmary precisely at 0900.

"Is she ready, Lieutenant?"

The nurse looked up and smiled, knowing he'd be there at the exact second. "Yes, Major Healey, all ready. Generals O'Neill and Carter asked that she be released to you for her after-care, she's ready to go."

The nurse gave him a packet. "Here's all you'll need for her wound care, and some pain medication as well. Needless to say, she can't drive herself, she's still a little loopy from the meds."

He smiled his thanks and understanding and went to Sam's bed. She was already dressed and eager to leave, her arm resting comfortably in a sling.

He gave her a hug over her right side, careful to avoid the sore left shoulder, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"All rarin' to go I see," he smiled down at her. She seemed very relaxed. Pain killers, no doubt, he thought.

She stuck out a foot and laughed. "Well, not QUITE ready! Can you please tie my shoes?"

He quickly did that task and held out his hand to help her up. He wasn't sure how unsteady she'd be on the medications, and after been lying down for the last several hours. Sure enough, as she took his hand and stood, she wavered a bit.

"Sam? Do we have a go?"

"We have a go, Major Healey." She stood a bit taller, determined to keep the dizziness at bay. "If you let me hang on your arm, I'll be fine."

As they turned to the exit, she saw SG-1, O'Neill and her father, watching them slowly make their way to the door.

Jacob gave her a careful hug as they entered the corridor. "How're you feeling, kitten?"

"Fine, Dad, just a bit whoozy from the meds."

O'Neill smiled at the two, happy to see Sam feeling better. "Healey, I'm releasing you from training and duty today, so you can take Colonel Carter home. Jacob and I, and Daniel and Teal'c, are still going over all the stuff from the planet she was injured on."

Jacob smiled at them. "Yes, Roger, please drive Sam home. Here're her car and house keys. I'm sure a day of rest at home will do her wonders, then back to limited duty tomorrow for her. Not for YOU though, we've still got some things to work on."

With Sam injured, O'Neill was allowing Jacob/Selmak to work with Daniel and Teal'c on the continuing training. The older man could give him not only tactical and weapons tips, as he'd done at the firing range, but more information about the Tok'ra's continuing resistance against the Goa'uld, and what Roger would need to do on the planetary surveys he'd accompany them on.

"Yes, sir, we'll be here for the 0700 meeting." He took the keys, and the couple headed for the surface to Sam's car.

By the time he pulled into Sam's driveway, her most recent pain medication dose was in full-swing.

Those must be mighty powerful pills, Roger thought, watching Sam's head loll back and forth on the headrest of the passenger side.

"You okay there, sweets?" he asked, and she smiled, eyes closed still.

"Wheeee!" she said, deliberately moving her head to heighten the effect.

"That's what I thought," he laughed. She's so out of it.

He got their bags, and helped her out, supporting her weight all the way to the door. He carried her up the stairs to her room, helped her get into a nightgown and tucked her in.

She turned onto her right side and looked up at him, smiling sleepily.

"Come here, my love," she said, pulling his hand toward hers, yanking him to her with a surprising grip so she could kiss him soundly.

She lost herself in that kiss, unaware that he'd knelt down so he could kiss her easily. Even without the meds, she would drown in those kisses, so now the effect was multiplied. She didn't know how long they'd kissed that way.

She pulled back and mumbled something.

Roger softly whispered in her ear, "What was that, Sam?"

"Forever kisses."

She closed her eyes, and within seconds was softly snoring. Roger remained as he was for a few moments, on his knees by her side, to be sure she was truly asleep, not unconscious from the powerful medicine. When he saw her stir, obviously dreaming something pleasant, he was sure it was true sleep.

He watched her like that, smiling, eyes moving as she saw visions and dreams unknown to him. He rubbed her hair back from her face, admiring how very beautiful she was. Such a woman he'd never known before!

And what had she called him? My love? His heart skipped a beat. My love, he thought again.

This incident had shown him and her both there was way more to their relationship than they'd realized.

He leaned down, gave her one more gentle kiss, Sam sighing in response. He leaned to her ear, knowing she'd hear him, even in her dreams. "Forever kisses, my love."

He left her like that, got his bag and went into the bathroom. He changed into his gym clothes he'd brought from the base, and carefully hung his uniform up for the morning.

He went downstairs to tidy up her place. Not that it needed much, but it gave him something to do. He went through her cabinets and cupboards, the refrigerator and freezer, to see if there might be something he could prepare for her when she awoke, or something that might be needed from the store.

He checked on her every so often, found her well, and settled on the couch to do some of his own relaxing, and switched on the television.

As he started the usual channel-surfing men are wont to do, his cell phone beeped.

"Healey."

"Roj, it's me." came Tony's voice.

"Hey, what's up? I'm at Sam's, the General released me from training and duty today to take care of her. She's sleeping right now, pretty out of it from the pain meds."

"That's good, I'm glad she's got you to take care of her. Back to work tomorrow? You did mention that she wasn't seriously wounded, right?"

"Yeah, she'll be on limited duty tomorrow, but I'm back in training. Her dad's going to be working with me." He couldn't say too much, of course, not being a secured line.

"Good, good," said Tony. "Roj, I was calling for a reason. Are you by a TV?"

"Sure, surfing the channels right now, why?"

"Put it on the Weather Channel. Looks like a hurricane may be heading our way, they issued the warning this morning."

Roger laughed, "If it ain't one damned thing it's another, right?" He flipped to the Weather Channel and watched for a few seconds, Tony remaining silent.

"Oh brother, Category 2 already and it's not even close to landfall."

"Yep," said Tony. "They think it'll hit 4, possibly even a 5!"

"And here we are in comfy little Colorado."

"Yeah, I was calling to see if you wanted me to go get your house ready, just in case." They both knew the routine, having lived in Florida for so many years. At least he wouldn't have to do the usual emergency stocking of food and water, although Tony and Jeannie would.

"That'll be great if you could, Tony. My neighbor's boy, James, might be able to help. Tell him I'll give him fifty bucks next week when we're there, if he could help you get it done faster. I've got all the boards you need, ready to attach to the windows, same ones I've used in the last couple of storms. I don't think I've got much out in the yard to secure, and the trees were pruned earlier this year for Spring. Shouldn't take you away from doing your own house too long, especially if James will help you."

"Check. I'd better run, Jeannie's doing what she can around here, but she always keeps the yard so neat there's not much to do. She and I should be able to handle the plywood on the windows. But we were about to head out to the store before the big run on supplies begins. I'll talk to you again as soon as I can."

"Sure, Ton, take it easy, y'all stay safe."

"Will do."

Roger closed the phone, and continued listening to the Weather Channel's ongoing hurricane updates. Category 2, and still that far from land, the storm continuing to draw energy from the warm Gulf of Mexico. Roger wondered if Samantha had ever been through a hurricane.

By the time we go to Florida next week, it'll either have hit or bypassed us. I wonder what we're going to find.

He watched it until the announcers and field meteorologists began to repeat themselves, as they often did on that network, and used that chance to go check on Samantha.

She was lying back, awake and reading a book from her nightstand. Roger glanced to see what she was reading. A physics book. He chuckled to himself, Figures.

"Light reading?" he asked as he signalled her to scooch over.

She threw the book down and smiled. "Oh, just looking to see the inaccuracies. These popular science books are such a joke, feeding junk to the masses."

He laughed, then turned serious. "Tony just called. Got a hurricane heading to Florida it looks like, and it's already a Category 2."

"And that is?" she asked.

"Oops, sorry, I'm so used to everyone and his cousin knowing that stuff. Hurricanes are rated on a scale from one to five. It's all based on sustained windspeed. A two isn't dire, but it's still a hurricane. The reason I'm concerned is because it's still nowhere near to making landfall, so it's going to continue gathering energy, not releasing it in wind, rain and lightning over cooler land. By the time it hits the coast, Tony said they're estimating it will be a four, maybe even a five!"

"A five, the top of the scale? What on earth does that do?"

"Ooh, that's a monster hurricane. Thank God they're very rare. Only been a few since the early 1900's, although the worst one was IN Florida, in the 1930's. Category five's got sustained... that's SUSTAINED winds, of over 155 miles per hour! Hurricane Camille that hit Mississippi was easily a Category five. The gauges broke at 220MPH, so they don't know, till this day, what the maximum winds were. Andrew was upgraded to a five ten years after the fact, but it was also based on damage done, not barometric pressure and sustained winds."

Sam was fascinated. She loved when Roger went into his lecturing mode. She knew about the physics of space, but had never considered the physics involved in meteorology. Being an astronaut and test pilot, Roger would have to have a strong background in such things, especially living in Florida, which had the most lightning strikes in the country. She knew a launch could be delayed for hours if there were any storms buzzing about the area.

They sat and talked for well over an hour, Sam asking questions, Roger answering. He is so brilliant, Sam thought, enjoying this little Q&A with her man.

Roger paused in his discussion about tornadoes that are always associated with hurricanes when he heard a suspicious sound. "Okay, now you're hungry. Let me go find something."

She laughed as he kissed her and went to the kitchen. She leaned back on her pillows, watching his retreating back down the corridor. He knows me so well, she thought.

After the light lunch he'd fixed, and after the Chinese food he'd ordered out in the evening, Sam insisted she wanted to go to the living room and watch some TV with him.

"I'm going nuts up here, I'm fine, really I am. Haven't needed any pain meds all afternoon, I'm bored to death just lying here when I could be sitting on the couch instead."

He stood at the door and motioned her to get up and get out then. He wasn't going to help her this time, he wanted to be sure she was steady. And she was. Perfectly fine, with the exception of her arm in its sling.

She stuck her tongue out at him as she walked by.

He walked in front of her down the stairs, in case a wave of dizziness made her stumble. He sat on the couch in his previous spot, and motioned for her to sit on his lap.

She didn't just sit on his lap, she straddled him, apparently forgetting about TV. She hiked up her nightgown and sat facing him, leaning in to kiss him deeply.

He pulled her closer, carefully avoiding her left shoulderblade, and so they sat for a few minutes, enjoying their first intimate embrace since before Sam was wounded.

"Roger," she sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him, nibbling on his ear lobe. She was getting fired up, all the hours of lying in the infirmary and in her bed, it felt good to move, to be so close to him.

"Sam," he said, lifting her nightgown up to touch bare skin, caressing her, nibbling and nipping at her neck, her shoulder, her breasts. I'd better slow down, he thought, we can't do this, not with that shoulder.

He pulled back. "Sam, I don't think we should make love, that shoulder..."

She groaned in frustration, collapsed against him in resignation. He was right. Her first night home and she was so turned on, but he was right. Relaxing completely against him felt wonderful enough. He rubbed her hair, her head resting against his shoulder, murmuring sweet words to her.

"I love you, Samantha Carter." he said simply.

He could sense the smile on her face. "I love you too, Roger Healey."

They sat that way for a while, reconnecting after this ordeal. Sam turned around, still on his lap, and flicked on the TV. They watched some shows, played some cards, and Roger finally told her it was bedtime.

"I told the Generals we'd be at the usual 0700, so let's get to bed. I've got your uniform laid out for you."

He pulled off his shirt, lay down on her right side and pulled her to him. He gave her head a sweet kiss, "Good night, my love."


	8. 13 AUG 2004

13 AUG 2004 Friday 23:39:01

They say Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. I say they're wrong.

Sam and I got to SGC just before the 0700, everyone greeting Sam like their long-lost hero. That's how they are here after all, it's a close-knit group, like the astronaut corps.

She's on light duty between now and our trip to Florida next week, then back to full duty on 24 AUG. Speaking of FL, I hope my house is still there come the 18th. Fretting won't make Charley go away I figure.

O'Neill and General Carter recapped what had happened on P3X-908, where Sam had been wounded. I was kind of bored, but paid attention any way in case I could get some tip on how to avoid natives firing muskets in the future.

After the meeting, O'Neill took Sam aside to go over some mission reports and have a good one-on-one. I think my ears should've been burning, they were probably also discussing me. General Carter met with me in Sam's lab, and we went over more issues involved in the Tok'ra planetary surveys, the usual procedures they follow.

Being renegade Goa'uld, although you NEVER refer to them as "Goa'uld," they are constantly on the look-out for their next base of operations, so I may be called on on a fairly regular basis. Hmmm, a Planetary Specialist actually getting to GO to other planets, LIGHT YEARS away, across this Galaxy? I'll have to think about it.

That took the whole morning, then he finally called for a break and we went to the cafeteria, chatting about stuff in general. He's a very cool guy. He told me how Sam had always dreamed of being an astronaut as a little girl, and now she's here, going all over the Galaxy. I'm sure he can't be prouder of how Sam turned out. She's quite a gal.

He and I had a very nice lunch. I'm surprised how relaxed I am around him, being a General and all. Just seems natural. I'm very glad he approves of me for Samantha though, because I surely would NEVER want to be on the wrong side of General Jacob Carter! He's not a big guy, but he's very commanding. Knowing he's got a symbiote in him who's hundreds of years old certainly helps. Makes me feel like a child, and I'm almost 50! 17 days and counting.

O'Neill asked him to join him after lunch, so Daniel set me to memorizing the glyphs on the DHD and Gate, and a handful of Gate addresses, esp. Earth and the Alpha site. A few others too, known safe worlds where the Goa'uld do not go or know about. That's in case for some reason I need to Gate there, instead of home (like if my GDO is lost or broken, don't wanna go SPLAT on the iris like a bug on a windshield, do I?)

About 1500, Daniel came in to see how I was doing. I began reciting to him, beginning with Earth, all the addresses I'd learned. Thank goodness if you dial wrong, it's not disaster, the wormhole just won't form. He showed me the little cheatsheet chart they had of the top 20 sites to learn first, so we took them to the gym with us to study while on the treadmill.

We walked that way for about an hour, an easy pace, him shooting questions at me and me answering. Got them all spot-on too. He was surprised. I started going off about how it's mathematical for me, a pattern I set into my brain, and he laughed to shut me up, told me I sounded like Samantha! I, of course, thanked him for the compliment.

Sam came in soon after with a big manual in her hand, and she threw it on the copy holder where my glyphs and address cheat sheet was. I was so shocked that the treadmill threw me off, almost into the wall.

(Reality kicks in.)

Roger stood there, stunned, holding the Flight Manual to the X-303 Prometheus in his hands. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe.

Sam went to him and shook his shoulder. "Roger, snap out of it, BREATHE MAN!" Daniel laughed, watching his reaction.

"I wish we'd had that on camera, Sam," he said.

She smiled and pointed to the security camera aimed at them.

"Good, we need a copy of that, for the first Major Roger Healey Roast in 2017."

He still hadn't moved, still didn't seem to be breathing. He was white as a ghost. Not for a bad reason, like when Sam had been injured, but because he literally thought he'd died and gone straight up to Heaven.

He looked up at her smiling face, his green eyes sparkling with such joy she had to laugh out loud at his reaction.

"This is a Kodak moment, isn't it?" O'Neill said from the door.

How do you tell a test pilot and astronaut, a man who'd rated Top Gun, a man who could fly anything if it had a stick, that the next stage in his flight experience was going to be a hyperspace craft, built by the US Air Force? Capable of going many times the speed of light?

You tell him very very carefully.

"Roger, honey, I think you had better sit down," she said, trying to lead him to a weight bench. She was getting concerned about the pale face and shallow breathing. Aren't those two signs of shock?

He snapped out of it, aware of the Generals' presence at the door. For General Carter had joined O'Neill so he wouldn't miss this moment. Nobody missed it on camera either. Sure, they had other pilots for the Prometheus, but this was the first shuttle Pilot and astronaut who had had the privilege. The whole floor wanted to see it.

Turns out that's why Daniel had brought him to the gym, so the word could get around.

He smiled down at Sam, who was still watching him intently to make sure he wasn't going to faint, then up to General O'Neill.

"Sir, I...I," he stammered. He took a calming breath. "I don't know what to say, General O'Neill!"

O'Neill smiled. "Relax, Healey, or we'll have to send you to the infirmary!"

Roger laughed, "Yes, sir, I think I can maintain now, the initial shock's over." He hugged the manual to himself, like it was the greatest treasure ever beheld by Man. To him, it WAS.

"You'll have that manual memorized by the 0700 meeting tomorrow, I take it? Pop quiz at 0900."

"Yes, sir, I will," he said in all seriousness.

"Healey, I was JOKING!" O'Neill laughed.

"Oh. Oh. Well, I probably will have it memorized, sir!"

He's serious, Jack thought. He probably will, from what I read in his personnel file. Top Gun.

"Don't fry any circuits, Healey, Carter here will work with you. She'll go over it with you this afternoon and evening. It's light enough duty for her."

Sam looked at Roger, then to the General. "General, I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but he already knows all that I know about the Prometheus." She smiled her chagrin, remembering the questions he'd fired at her when he first learned of the ship. "In fact, he was asking me questions way beyond anything I know."

O'Neill was shocked. He was asking questions CARTER didn't know? That was amazing! He looked at his watch. 1639. Not enough time left in the day.

"Carter, here's what you two will do. Tomorrow morning, show him the OTHER part of the airfield!"

That was it, Roger was sure he was going to faint.

Later that afternoon, Roger was finishing up packing the few belongings he'd acquired since Endeavour. Sam had asked him to officially move in with her. He was a little nervous about it, wondering what her father the General would say. Seemed too soon. He found out Jacob didn't have the least problem with the notion.

Jacob tapped on Roger's opened door. "You two about ready?"

Roger jumped. "Sir?"

"Sam didn't tell you? She's taking you and me to dinner before we bring your stuff to her place."

Sam laughed, "Oops, sorry Roger. Hey, Dad's joining us for dinner!"

He smiled at the General, almost back to normal after the shock earlier. "That's great, sir! Did you or Sam have some place in mind?"

So the evening began, Roger, Samantha and General Carter (and Selmak too, who was observing these two, offering commentary to Jacob every so often.)

He is very good for Samantha, Selmak told Jacob as Jacob took a bite of kung pao chicken.

Yes, he is. Very good. She is extremely happy. Selmak felt the love and warmth radiating Jacob from the inside out. He'd had other hosts with children, of course, and even though he'd not spawned himself, he knew what it was like to have such offspring as Samantha. He felt as if she was his daughter as well, which in a way, she was.

Perhaps there may be offspring in Samantha's near future, Selmak opined.

Jacob laughed to himself. Jumping the gun, Selmak! he silently chastised.

She is not getting any younger. Tau'ri females only have a certain time to mate.

Samantha was watching him, knowing her father and Selmak were carrying on a silent conversation.

"All right, Dad, 'fess up, what is Selmak saying?"

Jacob smiled. "It's our little secret, kitten, never you mind. I'm willing to wager we'll know within the year." He knew he was being cryptic, and knew that would make Selmak laugh.

He was right.

They brought the leftovers to Sam's, moved Roger's two boxes of things in, and Jacob hugged his daughter goodbye. He stuck his hand out to Roger. "You take care of my little girl, Healey."

He smiled, shaking the older man's hand. "You know I will, General, of course."

Jacob paused a moment, obviously talking to Selmak. "Roger, please, call me Jacob. You're living with my little girl, I think we've reached that point."

Roger was shocked and pleased. Looks like we've passed another milestone, he thought. "Sure, Jacob. It might take a bit of getting used to, I might call you 'General Carter' sometimes!"

Jacob laughed warmly, "That's fine, Roger. You two have a good night, now."

They stood there and watched her father leave, and closed the door.

Roger leaned hard against the closed door, closing his eyes, sighing in relief. "What a day, Samantha! The X-303, my girlfriend's father, a GENERAL, helps me MOVE IN with his only daughter! What else IS there?"

He hadn't noticed what she was doing when he was relaxing against the door, recapping all the wonders of that day, and heard her clear her throat. She was standing in a beautiful rose-pink nightie, arm in a sling, but lovely nevertheless.

She motioned for him to go up the stairs with her. "I'll show you what else."

13 AUG 2004 Friday 23:58:51

Tomorrow morning, sunrise, Samantha is going to bring me aboard the X-303 Prometheus for the first time.

We made love soon after we got home. I slept a couple of hours, but I am so strung up right now thinking about tomorrow that I can't sleep.

Eh, like Sam said, "Sleep's for the weak." I can always sleep on Sunday.


	9. 14 AUG 2004

14 AUG 2004 Saturday

Roger had his nose in the Flight Manual of the X-303 Prometheus as Sam drove them to the airfield. Every so often he'd see something especially fascinating and point to it, exclaiming to Sam.

Like a little kid set free in Candyland, she thought. He just might have that manual memorized by the next 0700. Pop quiz at 0900.

He finally became aware of his surroundings when they had passed through the security gate. They approached the airfield from a different angle than the last time he was here.

She parked in a secluded parking lot, and all he could see was shrub and scrawny trees, a field, some small hills. Not a sign of humankind in sight.

Except for a little tiny shack that looked like it was for storage.

She went to it, security access card at the ready.

They went in and the lone guard stood to attention and put his hand out.

"Good morning, Lieutenant," Sam said, handing over her ID and motioning Roger to get his own.

The guard, not recognizing Roger, made a scrutinous inspection of the ID and Roger, then finally decided the Major was acceptable.

"Good morning, Colonel, and thank you, sir," he said politely, motioning Roger to an elevator door.

Sam's eyes were alight. This was going to be good. She wanted to play this for everything it was worth, after his reaction yesterday at seeing the Flight Manual.

As they started down, she asked, "Should I get the smelling salts ready?"

Roger was actually nervous. If a FLIGHT manual could do that to him, what's the real thing going to do?

"I don't know, Sam, I really don't. I'm thinking it might be a good idea." He looked in the manual again, knowing what he'd see but he had to look again. It was THAT BIG? The space shuttle Enterprise had seemed huge to him!

The elevator stopped, the door opened, and Sam motioned him out. He stepped forward, looking around nervously, acting almost like the Prometheus was going to jump out and go BOO!

She went to the door opposite the elevator.

"Are you ready, Major Healey? Take a deep breath now..." and she pushed the door open, holding it for him, motioning him forward.

The USAF X-303 Prometheus.

Roger slowly stepped forward, eyes wide, mouth agape, like he was going into a shrine, a holy site.

For him, it practically was. He was a test pilot, an astronaut. And he'd beheld his Holy Grail.

He wasn't aware of it, but the crew of the Prometheus was watching his entry into the hanger bay. General O'Neill had called ahead to tell them he would be there, with Colonel Carter, to start training on the ship and be rated as Pilot as soon as possible.

Sam brought him aboard, up to the Bridge and began to make introductions.

This was going to be fun.

(Journalistic interlude.)

14 AUG 2004 23:17:02 Saturday

That's it. That is COMPLETELY it. There is no wonder that can surpass all that I've learned and experienced since being assigned to the SGC.

How can it get better than a hyperdrive spaceship? It can't.

Yes, the Stargate is of course incredible. But it's instantaneous. You're on Earth, you're light years away (not saying that's a BAD thing, of course!)

But this... this... I can't describe it. I just can't.

Sunday through Tuesday this week, I'll be reporting directly to the hanger bay of the X-303 for training. I told the training officer that it won't take much, I've pretty much got the manual memorized and I'm ready to take the helm. (I sound like Mr. Sulu!) He didn't believe me. In funny Bugs Bunny voice: He don't know me very well do he?

Wish I could've told him about the X-302 incident with General O'Neill, but of course I can't.

I'll wear my Top Gun pin tomorrow, that'll teach him. I didn't spy one on HIS lapel!

Wednesday Sam and I are off to Florida. Hope my house is still there. It should be. Tony said by the time Charley reached Cocoa Beach, it was only a one. Thank goodness.

My next entries will either be after I return from Florida on 23 AUG 2004, or if they let me take her out by Tuesday evening. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe take a quick little spin around the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter.

And I thought typing "beamed us up" was beyond any of my wildest dreams.

I've died and gone straight up. I know it.


	10. 17 AUG 2004

17 AUG 2004 

This is so incredible, I've got to do this in sequence.

15 AUG 2004 Sunday (So much for Sam and me sleeping in, but we've got Florida to make up for lost time this week.)

0549 Sam drops me off at the shack with a kiss for good luck, and I'm rarin' to go.

0552 The guard inside (I got my outside access card already) deems me worthy of continuing to the hanger bay. Does he never pay attention to shuttle launches? You'd think I'd just come in off the streets or something.

0600 Coffee in one hand, Flight Manual in the other, I'm itching to get my little grubbies on the Pilot's console.

0643 "Kenny" (he hates that, he says 'It's KENNETH'), muwhahahahaha decides to show up where I've been waiting so long, sipping coffee, finishing memorizing The Book.

Training officers. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. Goodness knows I've had my share of dealing with them. I wish I could just say, "Look, give me the flight manual, let me play around in the cockpit a while, bring me for a ride and I've got it." They never believe me. And Kenny didn't either.

What's worse, is this guy's a CAPTAIN, I OUTRANK him. He seemed to revel in that. Ha ha, let the stupid Major kowtow to My Command. But, unfortunately, until he puts his John Hancock on my rating, he IS in command. Bastard.

One thing happened where he couldn't cop that superior attitude: He didn't fail to notice my Top Gun pin. I made sure it was prominent (in its rightful spot on my lapel, of course.) I made a point of fiddling with it too, making SURE he didn't miss it. Not too many test pilots graduated Top Gun, after all. In fact, my situation's even rarer: Tony and I were both rated Top Gun.

Looking back over this entry, I really don't know why Kenny and I rubbed each other the wrong way almost instantaneously. Maybe because I kept insisting I'd memorized the manual?

0730 Kenny completes the time-wasting. He'd been pointing out everything on the helm for me. Sigh.

So the day went, him telling me the painfully obvious. He said the final hour there'd be a Question and Answer period where he'd test me. Har.

I think that's when I REALLY started pissing him off. The questions began to come faster and faster, I answered faster and louder, he started asking me stuff that he hadn't even covered that day, me going right along. It was a hoot. I started talking down to him by then, because he was starting to run out of things to ask me.

Now, when the same thing happened with Sam and me, and she finally said, "I don't know" I felt bad for pressuring her. But I wanted to teach this pup a lesson.

Unknown to us, because we're having our war of words, Captain Ronsen and some of the other senior officers were off to the side, listening in. And apparently, I found out later, laughing their asses off. More on WHY they were laughing their asses off later.

After KENNY was done, we looked at each other. I hated putting it this way, but I asked, "So? Am I DISMISSED for the day? CAPTAIN?" I swear, T.O.'s only get into that so they can have some authority over REAL officers!

He glared at me, I glared at him, and he said in a monotone, "Yes, Major Healey, until 0700 tomorrow." Not "sir." But I couldn't really get him for that, dammit.

Why don't they just let me take the damned thing UP already?

(Reality rears its annoying head for a while.)

Sam saw Roger emerge from "the shack" precisely at 1800.

He climbed in, gave her a quick kiss for hello, and pretended to sulk.

"Aw, what's the matter honey, hard day on the hyperdrive spaceship today?" she asked in mock sympathy as they pulled out.

He turned and smiled at her, "I bet you ask that of all your boyfriends!" and took her hand to kiss. She was his safe port between now and 0700 when he'd have to deal with that dweebie another day.

They drove in silence for a time, Roger recapping the day in his head. Did that twerp even TEACH me anything? he wondered to himself. The best part of the whole day was actually sitting in The Seat and manhandling the controls. They were going to run simulations tomorrow, which would make up for the twerp today.

He knew when running simulations, it was "real time" and in real time you don't have a T.O. breathing on you, you've got a computer monitoring all of your actions, right or wrong, for analysis later.

Well, I can at least PRETEND to be going to Jupiter! he thought. I really should talk to Sam about that, after all, since that's what got us together, her wanting to ask me about the planet.

Those distracting blue eyes, though.

Sam broke into his reverie. She had a twinkle in her eye, like she wasn't telling him something. "You want anything at the store? I need to get a few things."

"Beer. Lots of beer."

"Gotcha."

When they pulled up to Sam's house, Roger noticed a couple of extra cars. Daniel's and O'Neill's.

"Oh, we're having guests for dinner tonight?"

Still twinkling in the eye. She's up to something. Good.

"Yeah, we wanted to see how your day went."

"Sure, why not? You, the General and Teal'c are all experienced pilots, I'm sure you can commiserate with me having a twerp for a T.O."

Jack, Daniel and Teal'c met them outside, everyone grabbing groceries. All smiling. What the hell were they up to? Was there a surprise party for something? Still days until the big 5-0 after all.

Everyone crowded in the kitchen to get snacks, make sandwiches and load up on beer.

Sam was fiddling with the DVD player. "Okay, you guys ready?"

"Check," said O'Neill, winking at Daniel and Teal'c. They were all grinning in anticipation.

"What movie did you get? I dig movie night." This should be nice and distracting from his busy thoughts. He took a seat next to Samantha on the loveseat and looked at the guys. Still grinning, looking at him.

What? Do I have a booger on my nose or something?

Sam clicked and the disk started.

Roger almost spit his beer out.

"TO BOLDLY GO: X-303 AND MAJOR ROGER E. HEALEY. DAY ONE."

They all looked at him when he choked, and busted up laughing. Teal'c wasn't busting up laughing, but he was "enjoying it immensely" as he'd say. He sure looked like he wouldn't have missed it for the world!

After Roger got over the initial embarassment, he shrugged shyly and sat back to watch, arm draped around Sam.

Scene One: Roger Healey gets "The Book."

Scene Two: Roger enters the hanger bay for the first time.

Scene Three: Roger gets "training" from "Kenny."

Final Scene: The Question and Answer period.

It was then that Roger saw what had been going on around him, while Kenny was trying to recap the day in the form of a "test."

The cameraman alternately panned from Roger and Kenny to Captain Ronsen and the other Bridge crew, all doubled over, laughing silently, tears pouring down their faces.

It ended with a caption in the old "I Love Lucy" style, "Be sure to tune in tomorrow when Roger says, 'If it's got a stick, I can fly it.'" And somehow they'd edited his own voice into it. Damn them.

He stood and stretched, looked down at Sam then back to the men and said,"I've been had. I've been royally had."

O'Neill stood too. "Healey, that was one of the funniest training films I've ever seen! We need to save that for posterity, we really do! We all know Kenny's reputation, he's a jerk."

Teal'c asked,"So tomorrow you work on simulations, Major Healey?"

"Yes, something I'm of course excited about. I can close out Kenny boy for a while and fly the Prometheus!"

They all laughed as they got their dishes and glasses, put them away and said good night.

"We'll have Day Two tomorrow. Be ready."

Roger smiled at the General as he saw them to the door. "Yes, sir, I will. I'll be sure not to bad-mouth anyone. Won't know when or if I'm being filmed!"

16 AUG 2004 Monday

Roger did the same routine as before. Questions and answers to again "recap" what they'd covered the previous day.

Kenny's determined he's going to ask me something I don't know, Roger thought smugly. Do your worst, pipsqueak.

He ran the programmed simulations, reveling in the feel of the "ship," the graphics, the navigation. It felt so REAL! He even had the standard-issue flight suit, made just for Prometheus pilots. Insignia, name tape, the works.

His rumbling stomach finally told him it was time to break for lunch.

While he ate in the mess with the X-303 skeleton crew (it being mostly empty while in the hanger), the Captain and other Bridge officers reviewed the simulations he'd completed that morning.

The Chief Pilot picked through the computer printouts, and handed them to Captain Ronsen.

"The man can become one with the ship, Captain, I swear he can. What the hell was he doing flying Endeavour all these years, when we could've had him?"

He pointed to some numbers. "Look at his reaction time! That's just not HUMAN, sir!"

The Captain laughed. "You're right, that is amazing. I think General Hammond might want a peek at these while Healey's busy."

Unknown to Roger, the higher-ups, over Stargate Command, were buzzing about him all afternoon, phoning, emailing, faxing. His ears should've been burning.

1800 rolled around. Roger had had such a fun day, he was reluctant to leave.

"So, KENNETH, what's in store for tomorrow?" he asked as he got his stuff together.

"0700 again, Major Healey, the CO's office," he said ominously.

Roger's eyebrows went up, but he didn't say anything. Didn't want to give the T.O. the satisfaction of thinking he was making Roger nervous.

Roger hadn't seen the results of his simulations yet, thinking the computer was still crunching all the data. That's what it is, the Captain will have my results tomorrow morning and want to go over them with me, he thought.

And there was Sam, right on time.

(Journalistic interlude.)

The morning of 17 AUG 2004, I reported to Captain Ronsen as Kenny told me I was to do.

The Captain tossed a piece of paper at me. I'd got my Pilot's rating!

He said that he was convinced I truly had memorized the manual (Kenny thought I was joking...I guess my rep has made the rounds.) Not only memorized it, but worked it into my brain.

He went over my numbers from the sims, and I have to admit they were impressive. What can I say, I'm good!

He and I looked over the results a few minutes more, discussing salient points of the report.

Finally he stood up, and I could tell I was being dismissed.

I asked him if there was anything else I needed to do, and he smiled and said "Yes, Major, one thing."

"Enjoy your vacation."

More on 24 AUG. I'm not lugging a laptop on VACATION after all. Besides, Sam'll have hers, that thing is almost glued to her hip.

Author's Notes.

(To Be Continued in "Cocoa Beach," which covers 18 AUG to 23 AUG. One last installment and that story will be complete. Roger's personal log will resume 24 AUG and go through 29 AUG, then the complete story "The Gifts" will cover 30 AUG to 06 SEP. What happens after that, well, dunno.)

If you've been following this series, PLEASE let me know what you think! Visit my webpage, via the author's profile, for more detail and some sneaky-peeks on The Endeavour Series.


	11. 24 AUG 2004

24 AUG 2004 Tuesday 21:30:02 

Sam and I got back to the house at 1730 MDT last night. I'd already re-adjusted to FL time, only to have to go back to CO time last night and today.

I just looked back on my past entries and realized I haven't put anything about living here with Samantha. Had that BC-303 on the brain, I guess!

It hurt SO MUCH that I couldn't mention that to Tony! I don't know which is the most exciting about all that's happened to me here: Healey's Volcano (heh), the Stargate or the BC-303 (Samantha is another issue all together.) Well, at least I don't have to hide my caldera volcano or the existence of SGC and the Stargate from Tony.

Any way, about being here. It's been a long, long time since I've shared a place with a woman long-term like this. I've been doing my best not to interrupt HER routine, seeing as I came into her space. My stuff from Cocoa Beach won't be shipped here until later, so I don't have much here to personalize it. With my 'taste' I don't know if Sam's going to want me to!

I packed a few things in moving boxes and they're already on their way via ground freight, things I just can't live without or important personal stuff, like my pictures of Mom and Dad and the rest of the Healey family. Thank God none of that was damaged in Charley! And my medals, plaques, awards, all that stuff.

Sam and I are going to convert her extra bedroom into an office, with two computers and desks, the works, so we won't bother one another if one of us wants to stay up and play Solitaire or something.

Right now a laptop on the kitchen table seems to work.

Sam's in the living room watching TV and chewing on popcorn. I had to show the poor deprived girl the REAL way to make popcorn, as Dad taught me, not that newfangled microwave stuff. She loves it, says it's totally different.

When we got home last night, we just wanted to collapse on the sofa with a couple of beers but we were good and took care of everything first, knowing we'd be heading to SGC this morning.

(Reality bites.)

24 AUG 2004 Tuesday 06:47:01

Sam held the elevator door as Roger ran to it, retrieved briefcase in hand. She looked him up and down as he approached.

He checked himself. "What? Did I step in something?" He checked his shoes.

She smiled, "No, I was just thinking it's time we got you your new uniforms, now that you're not with NASA any longer. You'll need the Army version of the BDU's!"

He returned her smile as they stepped into the elevator car and started down. "That will seem strange to wear something different! It does feel odd, everyone wearing their BDU's and me in my regular Army uniform! It felt great wearing the Prometheus flight suit, I tell you what!"

"I'll talk to Supply this morning, see if we can get that ordered. You're the first Army officer to be assigned to SGC, you know!"

"Yep, I was one of the first Army astronauts too, the second, right behind Bob Stewart in 1985."

"I guess we don't think of the US Army having much to do with flight and spacetravel, although from what I saw in your file, you worked on the ISS BECAUSE you're in the Corps of Engineers, right?"

"Yeah, they said being both an astronaut and having had construction experience made me the best candidate to work with space-borne construction. Sort of the 'foreman' up there."

She never tired of hearing about his life as an astronaut, having wanted to be one herself since her childhood. The unfortunate Challenger accident in 1986 dashed those chances for her, and by the time the STS program was re-instated, she had learned about the Stargate and left pursuing a career as an astronaut behind.

They stepped off the elevator and went to the cafeteria for coffee before the usual 0700 briefing on the day's activities.

Daniel saw them come in as he got his mug of coffee. "Sam! Roger! How was Florida, the wedding?"

Samantha's smile lit up her face as she saw her friend and teammate. "Hey, Daniel, it went great!"

He looked at her tanned face and sun-streaked hair. "Looks like you took enjoyed the sun and water of Florida!"

She blushed, giving her tan a warm glow. "Oh, yes, and the heat and humidity and mosquitoes too! And the lightning!"

She knew that would make Roger laugh. Daniel turned to Roger. He didn't think lightning was THAT funny!

They walked to the conference room. Daniel asked, "Okay, what's funny about lightning?"

Roger winked at Sam and said, "Well, we were, um...we had just..." He cleared his throat, making it obvious from stalling what he WASN'T saying. "We had just gone...swimming, yeah, that's it... and a storm came and hit the water where we had been standing just seconds after I got out."

Daniel's eyebrows went up. "Got out? Of what?" and he winked at Sam as well.

She clapped them both on the back as they went into the room, the sharp sound causing O'Neill and Teal'c to look up in alarm.

O'Neill smiled and looked at his watch. 0658. "Carter, you're not supposed to officially start abusing your team until AFTER 0700!"

She smiled as she took her seat next to Roger, "Yes, sir, I'll remember that.!"

"Welcome back, by the way, to the both of you."

Teal'c spoke up as well. "Yes, it is good to have you back, Colonel Carter, Major Healey. You both look like you had the chance to rest and recreate in the sun and water of the state of Florida."

"Yes, Teal'c, much recreating in the waters of Florida!" Roger piped in, making Daniel laugh.

"Tell him about the lightning!" he said.

"Lightning?" Teal'c asked politely.

O'Neill looked at his watch again and cleared his throat. 0700.

"Okay, folks, we can discuss Major and Mrs. Nelson's wedding on our break, and learn all about the lightning," he said as he pulled open his meeting notes. Roger, Samantha and Daniel smiled, but didn't interrupt the General.

Daniel wrote a little note explaining, and Teal'c's eyebrows threatened to climb up to his tattoo, but he didn't laugh aloud.

O'Neill saw Daniel write the note. "Passing notes again, Daniel?"

Daniel said, "Um, sorry Jack. I'm ready." He folded his hands in front of him and became the perfect picture of attention.

"Let me start with Major Healey, then he'll be dismissed and we'll go over some SG-1 team related things." He looked at Roger.

"Major Healey."

"Sir?"

O'Neill looked down. "From what I see here, your training should be wrapping up soon. Dr. Jackson, General Carter, Teal'c and Colonel Carter have all given me the daily reports on your progress, as well as you attaining your Pilot's rating on the BC-303. The note from Captain Pendergast said you did an exemplary job, from start to finish."

He looked up at him, "Congratulations, by the way, I hadn't had a chance to say so before you left for Florida!"

The others offered their congratulations as well, causing Healey to blush.

Carter spoke up. "Sir, if I may? There's something I'm going to be adding to his training notes."

"What's that, Colonel?"

Sam smiled at Roger, then turned to the General. "While we were on vacation, Major Healey demonstrated quite adequately the use of stealth and covert tactics, and hand-to-hand combat as taught him by Teal'c."

She had their attention. When would he have done that? In Florida? On vacation?

She explained a bit more. "He'd pretty much challenged Major Nelson to a wrestling match, something they've apparently done for many years, usually unexpectedly and out of the blue. Mrs. Nelson informed me that not once had Major Healey been able to win in such bouts. This time, after drawing the competition out far longer than the norm, he took down Major Nelson quite easily." She smiled at Roger again. "In fact, he could've floored the Major within the first five seconds, but chose not to."

Teal'c nodded to Major Healey. "Excellent, Major, I am pleased that our practice sessions went so well for you. You will be able to handle yourself quite well in such situations off-world then."

"I wish I could have seen that, Major!" Jack said, grinning. He knew Major Nelson had at least three inches on the shorter Major. That must've been some competition! "Colonel Carter, if you could type that up and get it to me this morning, I'd appreciate it."

He looked back to the file and continued.

"Dr. Jackson said your memorization of the glyphs and necessary addresses of the Gate went well, that you use some mathematical..." he looked closer at the report, "'thingie' to help you remember." Jack looked at Daniel, amused by the linguist's choice of words.

Daniel smiled, having put it that way on purpose. Those files were always so stern and DRY, after all.

O'Neill's finger went down a list. "Advanced weapons training, tactics, languages, hand-to-hand combat..." He looked back to Roger.

"We'll update this with the Colonel's information, Major." He handed Colonel Carter a piece of paper. "Colonel, that's what General Carter and I, and Daniel and Teal'c, think the Major needs to wrap this up this week. When he's not working on these, he can use his time to work on the Healey Volcano data, as a break."

Everyone laughed, because to Roger that IS a break, a chance to delve into the science aspect of his role at the SGC.

He said cryptically, "We don't want to dally TOO long on this. There's already something coming down the pike that fits Major Healey perfectly, and the sooner we get him up and running the sooner we can begin that little project."

Of course that piqued everyone's curiosity, but O'Neill wasn't going to budge. He just wanted to make it clear that there wasn't a BIG hurry, but they wanted to get this done with as soon as possible.

He grinned at Roger. "Major, I need Colonel Carter most of this morning, so you're dismissed to go work on your volcano, hit the gym, whatever."

Sam spoke up, "Or go talk to Supply about those new uniforms!"

Jack agreed, "Yes, Major, it's time you started looking the part, why don't you do that first. I should be done with Carter by 1200, you two can get lunch, then start going over what remains of your training."

Roger got his briefcase, stood and saluted both O'Neill and Carter, and left when he received their salutes in return.

Jack motioned for Daniel to close the door.

After Daniel took his seat, Jack grinned at Carter. "It's going to take a LONG time to break that saluting habit of his, isn't it?"

"General, the environment he'd been working in at NASA is the opposite around here! I know we're not slack or disrespectful, sir, but it's just nuts there. He was close to having an ANXIETY attack, going in to talk to his CO and to Dr. Bellows, the base psychiatrist!"

"Healey was? Hmmm, he doesn't seem the type."

Roger went to Sam's lab first, not having his own office yet. His volcano data were accessible from there as well as the computer in his former quarters, so this was as good a place to call "home" until he had his own space. He set his briefcase and uniform jacket down and went to find Supply.

By 1156, Sam was back in her lab. She stopped at the door to watch Roger, hunched over computer readouts, marking with a pen and muttering to himself.

She sneaked up on him, peering over his shoulder, not making a sound. Sam knew math, but this was gibberish to her. She knew every discipline of physical science used higher math and formulae, but had never seen such from a geologist's point of view.

She slowly and carefully bent down to place a kiss on his exposed neckline, breathing a second before in warning. She didn't want to scare him so he'd spill his coffee on his important research!

Roger knew she was there, of course. He'd known since she stood in the door. And he also knew how watching him work, in his "Dr. Healey" mode, turned her on.

He grabbed her around the waist as she leaned in to kiss him, burying his own face into her neck, making her squeal in surprise and delight.

"Gotcha!" he murmured against her, kissing and nibbling.

She laughed, "You rat, you KNEW I was there, didn't you!"

He pulled back to look her in the eyes. "Of course I did! You stomped through here like a herd of elephants!"

He stood up, holding her tightly, looking over her shoulder at his watch. "1159. Time to take a break!" And he walked her to the storage closet, still holding on to her, almost like two dancers making their way to an exit.

He said to her, as he pushed the door shut, "Come here, my pretty!"

(Journalistic remains of the day.)

Sam and I are bad, at the rate we're going, we're going to have to redecorate that damned storage closet!

This afternoon, once we went back into Colonel and Major roles, we did more weapons training and familiarization. We were practicing on the obstacle course, firing around barrels, poles, off the ground, left handed, right handed, all different positions. We were practicing tactics and stealth as well, in full gear, me, Teal'c and Sam.

It still feels odd to do that again. I've been an astronaut for so long. I'm not saying we're pampered, it IS the most dangerous profession on Earth, but in some ways we really are coddled. We don't get our hands dirty in the trenches like the foot soldiers do, after all.

To be out there getting grubby, sneaking around in the brush, P-90 in hand and wearing a gear pack, well, no wonder I'm looking pretty damned good for almost fifty. That's strenuous work! It's fun to work out there though, and working in the gym with Sam and the guys.

Speaking of Sam, she's informed me it's time for bed. At least her bed is softer than a file cabinet!


	12. Training Wrapup

29 AUG 2004 23:19:13 Sunday 

What a week it's been!

25 AUG 2004 Wednesday

Daniel, Teal'c and I had a final review of the Goa'uld language, politics of the system lords and the known Galaxy in general and discussed the various "superior" races and allies.

26 AUG 2004 Thursday

Weapons training completed. We reviewed my experience and skills that I've had for a long time, just had not used much lately. You know, things like Command, covert ops, survival, such as that.

Then we reviewed things I've learned (more hand-to-hand technique, advanced weaponry, languages, peoples of the Galaxy, the Gate/DHD/glyphs/addresses) since my posting here.

27 AUG 2004 Friday

Ah, now THIS was the highlight of the week!

O'Neill wanted me to work on the X-302 more, so SG-1 and I went to the airfield to play!

Teal'c gave me pointers on air combat tactics in the X-302. Daniel joined him, just for the ride, and Sam was my co-pilot

Needless to say, this was a BLAST! And thank goodness for those inertial dampeners because those things are so maneuverable, we all would've been creamed by the g-forces. Poor Daniel was getting motion-sickness even with the dampeners ON, he said, something to do with his eyes and motion. Nystagmus.

I know one thing: Teal'c is an amazing fighter pilot. If his son Ray'ac can fly like him, small wonder the kid is doing so well in his training! I think Ray'ac was 16 when he blasted Anubis's weapon and saved us all. Amazing. Some day when I have kids, they're all going to be pilots (of course.) Brilliant, charming and handsome too, like their old man.

After we returned to the hanger, we went to lunch then back to SGC. Daniel felt better immediately after the world stopped whirling around him, so he joined me and Teal'c in the gym after our lunches had settled.

Sam was off to parts unknown.

(Reality stops by for a chat.)

O'Neill, Carter and Major Marc Gregory were in the main conference room, reviewing Healey's file one last time.

Jack had decided SG-9 could most use a man of Healey's talents, knowledge and skills. Ironically, it was the same team that lead them to find Jeannie on P2X-899.

Although the General didn't need Major Gregory's approval for Healey to join SG-9, he always ran new assignments past the team leaders. Made for better morale and less bad-blood on the team. An off-world team had to be a cohesive, tight unit, not carrying a lot of resentment.

Granted, it could take time to forge that connection, but it would be doomed from the beginning if not allowing for the team leader to have an opinion.

Carter and O'Neill chatted while the Major looked over Healey's extensive file.

The Major finally looked up, at them both, and sighed.

"Major? Is there a problem?" Sam asked.

Gregory thought a moment. "Permission to speak freely, sirs?" He was a little nervous, knowing the Lt. Colonel had a relationship with Healey. He wasn't sure how she'd react to any possible criticism. Sure, he was the same rank as Healey, but not of these two.

O'Neill smiled. He understood his nervousness about being honest about Roger. "Certainly, Major, nothing to hide here, that's why we invited you."

"All-in-all, his record looks great. Academics, test-pilot, astronaut, the additional training here at SGC, but I have one concern." He looked nervously at Carter.

She gave him a relaxed smile, to show she was't going to flip out if he said a bad word about Roger. "Major, please speak your mind, it won't bother me at all."

"Yes, ma'am." He pulled out a sizeable portion of the file. "It's this. His psych reports from NASA."

He looked more carefully. "A Dr. Bellows. Something in there on him almost every week from the base psychiatrist."

Sam laughed, causing Gregory to stare at her in confusion. "Major, a good portion of what the doctor was writing about was what was going on with Major and Mrs. Nelson and her seeming use of 'magic' during that time. We've since determined that she's been using Ancient technology, and she's a direct descendant of the Ancients who had remained on Earth after Atlantis. To the doctor's point of view, Majors Healey and Nelson DID look pretty crazy. But it was never enough to bar them from the astronaut corps."

She removed another portion and showed him. "See? His actual official tests on handling stress and so on, the usual battery given to all potential and current astronauts, he always did extremely well. And that's the important aspect of this file, not some old doctor's personal opinion of him."

Jack said, "I've got all the proof I need, Major, that Healey can handle himself in extreme situations."

"Yes, sir," he said, not sounding totally convinced. "General, during his time here, he's proven to be a bit of a clown, do you think that'll be a problem? I've heard the scuttlebutt around the base." He glanced nervously at Sam again, then back to O'Neill.

"He does have a sense of humor, no crime in that. He, Dr. Jackson, Teal'c and Colonel Carter can vouch for that, from the laughing I hear from her lab sometimes." He pointed to the file. "BUT, if you've noticed, he's always the epitome of respect as well, to myself, General Carter and Colonel Carter here. He insists on saluting her and myself, and you know how that fares with me."

Major Gregory smiled, "Yes, sir."

"I'm still trying to break him of that habit, but it's going to take some time, from what Carter has told me about his NASA days."

Gregory began to put the file back in order. Their good opinion had convinced him.He handed the file back to the General.

"So, Major, what I'm saying is that while he does cut up a bit, when it comes to it he can be as calm, stable and serious as the day is long. And he knows how to follow orders."

"That's another question. Will he have a problem taking MY orders? We are the same rank, after all."

"Shouldn't be a problem. He's been 2IC on many shuttle missions, under Major Nelson as Mission Commander. His file shows he's never exhibited one problem with it. He has, don't forget, been a unit commander as well, so he's not unfamiliar with it."

"Yes, sir. Sounds good then, I'm happy we're getting him, I just needed clarification on a few points. I know at least two other teams were hoping to get him, I'm glad you chose SG-9, General."

O'Neill stood up, indicating the review was over. "I'll let him know and you two can talk soon, get to know one another. Your next mission, August 30th, he'll be with you as 2IC and Planetary Specialist."

Gregory smiled before he left, nodded his head to Carter in farewell. "Yes, sir, I'll get with him soon."

O'Neill checked his watch. "Almost 1600. Why don't you go to Supply, get his uniform ready, and tomorrow we'll tell him the good news." He shook a warning finger at her, "And no spilling the beans!"

Sam laughed as she left. "Don't worry, sir, no bean spilling."

28 AUG 2004 Saturday

Sam and Roger were working in her lab most of the morning, after the daily 0700 briefing.

Both were so engrossed in their projects that the loud voice over the P.A. made them jump.

"SG-1, SG-9 and Major Healey, report to the main conference room, on the double!" bellowed the General's voice.

Roger almost jumped out of his skin, looked at Sam. "What's going on?"

She smiled and took his hand. "Come on, I'll show you."

When they arrived, there were O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, Teal'c, Major Marc Gregory and two people Roger didn't recognize. The General was holding something behind his back.

"Major Healey, please come forward," the General said without preamble.

Healey presented himself at attention and saluted.

Jack rolled his eyes and said, "Healey, I'm going to say this ONLY ONCE: at ease." He had to say the same to Carter when they'd both been promoted; she had insisted on standing to attention whenever he would enter the room.

Roger smiled and relaxed. "Yes, sir." The others in the room knew how he felt, it had taken them some time to finally learn this General was not huge on such protocol.

"Major Healey, we'll be short about this." Jack indicated SG-9, Major Gregory smiling back.

"Welcome to your new team, SG-9. You will be joining them as Second-in-Command and Planetary Specialist."

Roger's eyes lit up. SG-9! The team that guided him to his volcano! To Jeannie! He grinned at his new team, then back to O'Neill.

Jack continued. "You've done an exemplary job since your re-assignment here, and many teams were vying for you. Major Gregory and his team lucked out." He pulled his hand out from behind his back and handed Roger his team jacket.

"Your official SG-9 uniform jacket, made especially for you, Army." And Jack winked. The Supply sargeant had to get confirmation. Army? Are you SURE?

Roger took off his regular uniform jacket and slipped his new SG-9 team jacket on, admiring how it looked. He looked at Sam, and she smiled. "It does look unusual, being Army!"

He looked at Gregory and his two new teammates and laughed, "It'll make me easy to pick out of a crowd!"

O'Neill dismissed them all, and they gathered in the cafeteria, chatting and laughing amongst themselves.

He talked with his new team, listened as they regaled him with missions they'd been on. They talked about the visit to P2X-899 that eventually lead them to Jeannie and the Healey Volcano.

Roger said, "Owens, your report on those quakes that day was very helpful in my preliminary research, one of the first clues we had that there was unrest on that planet. Excellent job."

"Thank you, sir," he said, blushing at the compliment.

Mentioning the quakes brought more laughter and reminiscing from the team, and Roger sat back to listen.

This is going to be GREAT! he thought.

Afterward:

This concludes Major Healey's training at Stargate Command. On 30 AUG 2004, he'll take his first off-world trip as 2IC and Planetary Specialist.

The next story will be "The Gifts," which covers 30 AUG 2004 to 06 SEP 2004. This is going to be the best EVER, so don't miss it. Roger's personal log will resume 07 SEP 2004.

As always, please read and review. You can find out much more about "The Endeavour Series" via my webpage (through my author's profile.) And if you snoop around a bit on that site, you'll get some peeks into Roger Healey's future with SG-9, Stargate Command and Samantha Carter.


End file.
